


Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained

by Hei, Respectable



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bad Decisions, Gen, Little Itachi, Never Listen to a nice Sasuke, Not as cracky as it seems, Sasuke needs rescued from himself, The Author Regrets Nothing, Time Travel Attempted Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-06-01
Packaged: 2018-05-25 06:06:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6183598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hei/pseuds/Hei, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Respectable/pseuds/Respectable
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sasuke comes to Naruto in the middle of the night offering the chance to fix everything.</p>
<p>or </p>
<p>In which Sasuke causes the problem, is the problem, and is subsequently in desperate need of rescue from the problem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 我田引水 (Gaden Insui)

 

Naruto woke up to a strangely human shaped weight on his chest and his window open. “It’s been a while, Naruto,” said a voice that sounded suspiciously like Sasuke.. 

Except that couldn’t be right because Sasuke was gone, chasing after the illusion of power with his  _ new  _ team. There was absolutely no way that he could, instead, be in Konoha, in Naruto’s apartment, sitting cross-legged on Naruto’s chest. Things like that just didn’t happen. Except there was clearly  _ someone _ sitting on top of him. So he replied with the most intelligent thing he could think of, “Huh?”

“Awhile, idiot. Many days, a long time -”

Naruto glared at him, because Sasuke, and who else  _ could _ it have been, was being an ass. “I know what a while is,” he grumbled. “Just-- get  _ off  _ my chest. Bastard.” And with that, Naruto struggled, attempting to knock his best-- his ex-teammate off of him. If he weren’t so tired, he’d probably have reflected longer on literally trying to get Sasuke off his chest. “What are you even doing here?” He asked instead,” Does Tsunade-baa-chan know you’re back? And what made you think it was a good idea to break into my apartment-”

Sasuke, who was apparently in something of a hurry, interrupted him before he could really build up momentum. “Don’t you ever shut-up? I can’t answer  _ any  _ of your stupid questions if you keep babbling.”

As if Sasuke would actually deign to reply to any of his questions anyway. Still, the bastard did owe him some explanation. At a loss for what to say first, and eager to get Sasuke off of his person and his bed, Naruto asked  “Right. So, uh,  why are you here then?” .

Sasuke grinned maniacally, “I found a way to fix everything!” And that wasn’t at all creepy. It was at that point that Sasuke decided to shift, digging his ankle into the space between Naruto’s ribs and reminding Naruto that there were more important things than Sasuke’s delusions.

“That hurts,” Naruto growled, shoving at him far more emphatically, “Get. Off. My. Chest!” And that time, Sasuke allowed himself to be knocked off. Except not really, because instead of falling to the floor in a graceless heap, like Naruto had half-hoped, he landed lightly on his feet. Like a freaking cat, or some other suitable metaphor. 

“Do you want to save the world or not?” How could Sasuke act that like it was a reasonable thing to say? As if he were commenting on the weather or asking what flavor of ramen he would prefer.

“I’m listening.” He said, more than a little annoyed at Sasuke and this whole situation. Now that Sasuke was no longer sitting on him, Naruto pushed himself somewhat more upright. Sasuke had a lot of nerve barging into his room in the middle of the night and yelling at him as if  _ he  _ were the weird one. 

“Good,” was the terse reply. Sasuke was looking at Naruto as though he desperately wanted to glare at him, but was at least attempting to be civil. It was the most effort Naruto had  _ ever  _ really seen Sasuke put into being nice, and he was more than a little concerned. Apparently having decided to go on, Sasuke continued, “Now imagine it: just the two of us, working together to bring peace and save the ninja world. You’ll have a head start this time, so you might not even be dead last. Once we--”

And now Naruto knew for sure Sasuke was crazy. “ _What_ are you talking about?,” he asked, interrupting Sasuke mid-speech. This was rapidly becoming one of the strangest conversations he had ever had. 

Sasuke walked over over to him, his face, no longer attempting civility, was contorted into something Naruto hesitantly identified as frustration, or madness. And taking into account their conversation so far, that second one was actually far more likely. It was pure instinct that had him dodge to the left just in time to avoid Sasuke’s fist, and seriously, who the  _ hell  _ did Sasuke think he was? Naruto was just about to ask him that very question when Sasuke actually took a step back and a slow, deep breath, visibly attempting to reign in his temper. Whatever Sasuke wanted, he must have  _ really  _ wanted it.

“You. Me. Saving the world. Understand?”

Naruto gritted his teeth. There was no way Sasuke wasn’t doing this on purpose. “You know, it doesn’t magically make more sense just because you repeated it,” he complained, and really, why couldn’t Sasuke just spit it out? Talking around the matter was just making  _ both  _ of them miserable.

“Which part of that is difficult to understand?” And now, Sasuke was so very close to losing his temper again, it took all of Naruto’s restraint to keep from prodding him further. “ I’d break it into smaller words, but I hardly think that’s even possible.”

Deciding to be the mature one and actually advance the conversation, Naruto ignored Sasuke’s jab and asked “Sure, but how? You haven’t even told me  _ anything!  _ How  _ exactly  _ are we saving the world?”

And, as if Sasuke hadn’t realized that that had been what he was asking the whole time, he stared at Naruto with an almost obsessive intensity. “With this!” announced Sasuke melodramatically, pulling a scroll from the side of his belt and unrolling it on the bed. Naruto thought he almost looked possessed. There was no way this would end up well. “This seal will take care of everything. With a constant supply of chakra, the rabbit array here,” he explained, gesturing to a section Naruto couldn’t quite make out in the dim moonlight, “can modulate the power  flow through the rest of the seal - “.

Naruto sighed, because this was actually going to require thinking and there was no way he was going back to sleep tonight. He had forgotten how annoying his old teammate could be and how persistent when caught up in his own brilliance. But, knowing that putting it off wouldn’t fix anything at this point, he stood up. “Alright, we’ll talk about this plan of yours, but first I need to get dressed,” Naruto said. “That means you need to turn around,” he added helpfully, a moment later when Sasuke couldn’t act even remotely like a decent person and continued to stare at him. 

Once he was standing and dressed, Naruto realized that there was just too much crazy to handle on an empty stomach and stumbled through his dark apartment to the cupboard. Sasuke, who was apparently attached to him like a lost puppy, followed and sat down on his kitchen table. 

“So as I was sayi-” Sasuke tried to begin, but Naruto held a finger up, and, amazingly, he actually listened.

Realizing that some ground rules needed to be established, as Sasuke’s time away from the village had apparently eroded any sense of decency he had ever had, Naruto said, “No. No more plans until after breakfast.”

“Tch. You and your stupid ramen,” muttered Sasuke, but maybe - unlikely though it might be - he was actually capable of following simple directions, because after that, he did stay mostly quiet while the water worked on boiling. 

There was something nostalgic about sitting with a silently brooding Sasuke. Naruto could remember back when they were younger, when Team 7 was still together. How on the few occasions Sasuke had deigned to come over, he had never been so considerate, constantly mocking and never listening. They had all changed a lot since then though. Sakura had grown so fiercely independent; she hardly resembles the shy academy girl he first met. And Kakashi-sensei was so much more  _ present _ , sometimes almost treating them like equals. Sasuke too, was different. He was taller for one, and even though he now had the same fashion sense as that snake-bastard, he was surprisingly un-snake-like. He was still taller than Naruto, and more muscular, which kind of sucked. But then, Orochimaru seemed to have driven him insane, so there was that to consider too. And then the kettle went off and forced Naruto out of the past. 

He easily grabbed a bowl from the counter, opened the package of Ramen and poured the water in, then started the ritual of counting down from 300. It only took two minutes for the noodles to be ready, but Naruto had always counted fast. During the whole process, Naruto was vaguely aware of Sasuke talking. Had he been doing that the whole time? Apparently he had been wrong about that whole following directions thing. At that point, though, all Naruto could concentrate on was the delicious saltiness of the broth and noodles. And though he would never have guessed it, Sasuke’s voice did make a soothing background to his breakfast. 

After a couple of bites, Naruto finally looked at the scroll and immediatly realized it was too dark to read. Not willing to get up himself, he gestured vaguely toward the lights with his chopsticks and Sasuke actually obliged. 

The seal array was complex, stupidly so, using archaic characters and unrealistic chakra requirements. That was the first thing Naruto really processed. On closer examination, it also had an odd number of built-in redundancies and patterns he was unfamiliar with. And then there was what Sasuke had done to it. It was obvious that wherever Sasuke had found it- and given the scroll’s complexity he  _ must _ have found it- Sasuke had modified it. His calligraphy had always been unmistakably impatient, as he had considered the skill a waste of his time. Sasuke had voided an entire section of the array and replaced it with a hacked-together mess that was practically illegible, obviously trying to fit too much into the small space. 

“What did you do to this?” Naruto asked without thinking, “This scroll is a historical artifact and you just vandalized it!” While he normally had no problem with the principle of vandalizing historical stuff, Sasuke had butchered it, and considering its complexity, modifying it, especially to that extent, could very well be suicide. 

“I fixed it.”

“What do you mean fixed it? Those parts were the least of its problems!“ Naruto said gesturing near the top, where Sasuke had made a few other changes. “The imbalance of chakra, here alone, would cause the disintegration whoever was crazy enough to activate it. And when amplified by the dragon-ram array…” Naruto trailed off. Sasuke, if anything, looked unimpressed by the sheer insanity he had laid before them. “BOOM!” Naruto yelled, throwing his hands up in the air, “No more me, no more you, no more Konoha! Doesn’t that bother you, asshole?” 

Sasuke had the audacity to shrug and point to an earlier section of the scroll, “That’s why the wards come first.”

“Oh, even better!” said Naruto after looking at the area Sasuke had indicated, “So the energy will just ricochet off the walls forever, building up strength until it rips a hole in  _ reality _ !”

“Not reality.  _ Time _ ”, Sasuke said, as if that were somehow better.

“So then-- You’re proposing we activate this thing, hope it doesn’t kill us, somehow it sends us back in time who-knows-where, who-knows-when, and we survive long enough to save the world? What’s to stop it from sending us before the founding of Konoha, or before there were even ninja? And seriously, I’m missing the part where this  _ doesn’t _ kill us!”

“You never used to be this cowardly, Naruto.” Sasuke said in a poor attempt to goad him, his eyes were almost glowing with a familiar look of obsession. “With this, you and I will save the world. We’re going to stop everyone from dying. Imagine a Konoha untouched by war, Orochimaru uncovered and executed before he has a chance to betray Konoha. All of the rookie nine could have a real childhood. You and me, we can fix the world.”

And despite the fact that Sasuke had been acting a bit off this entire evening, Naruto couldn’t help but imagine a second chance. But Team 7 wasn’t just the two of them. And before he even realized he’d spoken, Naruto asked “Just you and me? What about Sakura and Kakashi-sensei?”

Sasuke paused for a moment, blinked, and looked at Naruto, apparently broken out of whatever that was, leaving his eyes almost calm again, “Of course they’re coming. It’ll be just like old times.” Sasuke’s mouth almost managed to twitch up at that, in the most pathetic Sasuke-smile Naruto had seen in quite awhile. He wasn’t even sure why Sasuke had bothered trying.

Still, Naruto couldn’t help but grin himself. He knew that the rest of the team was an afterthought to Sasuke, but even so, having a chance to fix everything would be really tempting except, “You still haven’t explained how this doesn’t end in all of our deaths.” 

Sasuke looked annoyed by the fact that Naruto was fixating on that, “Don’t you trust me at all? I wouldn’t be proposing it if it would kill us. I’ve already tried it myself - how do you think I know what it does? But I don’t have enough chakra to go back more than 10 -15 minutes,”said Sasuke, and Naruto thought he had to be telling the truth because it was clearly a painful admission.

Then, for the first time since Sasuke had broken into his apartment, Naruto actually allowed himself to seriously consider it. A chance to go back, to fix everything? Could he-

“Are you in or not? This seal is pretty time sensitive. We probably only have another 30 minutes to activate it if we want to have any control over where it sends us. So if you want to do it, we’re going to have to round the others up quickly.”

Naruto noded, mind made up, “Fine, let’s do this. You grab Kakashi-sensei, I’ll get Sakura.”

“How about the other way around,” Sasuke asked, “I don’t know how happy Kakashi will be to see me.”

Naruto was forced to agree, there was a fairly good chance that Kakashi-sensei would report Sasuke to Tsunade-baa-chan even if to no one else. “Alright, but make sure you’re quick, I need to have time to put seals around the apartment so when this blows up in all of our faces, it doesn’t take out the rest of Konoha.”

Sasuke actually quirked his mouth up at that, and the madness was well and truly gone from his face.“You might want to be a bit more optimistic when you go to get Kakashi.”

“Just leave already, asehole,” Naruto grumbled, glaring, but his heart wasn’t really in it. He was thinking about how he was going to convince Kakashi-sensei of something that sounded as crazy as this. Trust Sasuke to come back and make everyone else’s lives more difficult. But if Sasuke really could pull it off, if  _ they  _ could really pull it off...

 

***

“Kakashi-Sensei! Kakashi-sensei, wake up and get me down! You’re the absolute worst. I was going to knock this time, I swear I was! Why would you booby-trap right in  _ front _ of your door? What if I had been a civilian?,” Naruto’s voice carried into Kakashi’s apartment.

It said something about their relationship, Kakashi thought, that this was not the first time Naruto had decided to invade his sanctuary and ended the evening strung upside down by his foot, like a new genin. And for that reason, Kakashi didn’t feel at all bad slowly getting out of bed and making his way over to the door. “Naruto, what a nice surprise. What brings you by this time of day?” he asked pleasantly, looking at his angrily dangling student.

“There’s something I wanted to get your help with, Kakashi-sensei,” Naruto began brightly, in a way Kakashi thought might have been meant as disarming, but Naruto had never been particularly skilled at misdirection. “Back, err, at my place.”

As they walked back, Kakashi pressed Naruto for details. It had been awhile since he had last come to Kakashi’s house asking for help, probably not since before Team 7 dissolved. And really, Kakashi thought, his student would have just told him whatever this was about if it didn’t involve Team 7, or more likely Sasuke, in some manner. He could only hope that Naruto wasn’t in over his head. Those two had never been a sane combination and neither time nor distance seemed to have cured them.

By the time they reached Naruto’s apartment, Kakashi was still not sure what was going on. Though each time Naruto attempted to reassure him of the safety of their… venture, his misgivings had only grown. Kakashi found himself unreasonably relieved to note that nothing  _ seemed  _ to be out of place in the main room, but when Naruto immediately started placing powerful containment seals along the walls, it strengthened his suspicion that Sasuke must somehow have been involved. Which was why when Sasuke finally  _ did  _ enter the room, carrying an unconscious Sakura, Kakashi was more resigned than surprised. 

Sure that he didn’t actually want to know what was going on, but somehow still rather morbidly curious, Kakashi smiled and said, “So Naruto, happy as I am to see all of my adorable students together again, I find myself wondering why.”

Naruto fidgeted and looked supremely uncomfortable, apparently Sasuke was the one to blame for tonight’s insanity. “Umm, that’s a really interesting question Kakashi-sensei,” Naruto began, glancing between Sakura, Kakashi and Sasuke in rapid succession, “and I think  _ Sasuke _ would be the best one to explain it. And while he’s at it, he could explain why Sakura is  _ unconscious _ on my couch!” Kakashi noted there was definitely some tension between the two. Some things never changed.

Sasuke didn’t appear all that bothered by Naruto’s outburst. He actually seemed remarkably calm, far more so than the last few times Kakashi had seen him. “She was sleeping, I didn’t want to wake her,” he replied, shrugging slightly. “Anyway, I’ve found a way to go back in time. Once we activate this seal, we’ll go back to the time we most want, effectively allowing us to protect Konoha and save the world.”

Kakashi looked him over carefully, but Sasuke remained relaxed, unbothered by the impossibility of what he proposed. And whatever his plan was, he had apparently won Naruto over as well. Disregarding the sheer improbability of Sasuke managing to find a way to go back in time, Kakashi asked “What do you get out of all of this?” Because while time might have changed him, Sasuke had never been selfless or an idealist.

Sasuke looked hurt and Kakashi realized for the first time that night that he didn’t know Sasuke anymore. He couldn’t judge how much, if any, of his expression was sincere. “I’ve, done some things that I regret,” Sasuke muttered, refusing to look any of them in the eye, “I see now that I never should have left Konoha, and while I could turn myself in, that wouldn’t undo any of my mistakes. By going through with this, I can,  _ we  _ can make sure that Orochimaru, the Akatsuki, none of that happens to Konoha again.” While all of that could be true, Kakashi knew that wasn’t the real reason Sasuke wanted this, but for now he was willing to let it go.

“That doesn’t explain the warding seals, if this really is as safe as you’ve been telling me, Naruto,” Kakashi said, turning toward Naruto.

Naruto looked embarrassed, “I trust Sasuke, he’s tried this before, but with the amount of chakra the seal requires, I want to make sure everyone will be okay even if this goes wrong.” That showed far more foresight than Naruto usually displayed. If he hadn’t currently been in the company of a missing nin, entertaining the idea of time travel, he might actually have thought his students were developing a bit of common sense.

“So,” Sasuke began, hesitating slightly, “Kakashi-sensei, are you in?” And right there, Kakashi knew without a doubt that Sasuke was lying, or at least purposefully omitting information. But it didn’t matter. Kakashi couldn’t let go of the opportunity to go back. There was something that he desperately needed to fix. If there is a chance, even the barest hint, that this will allow him to save Obito, he had to take it. 

Knowing that he would soon regret it, but incapable of making any other choice, Kakashi smiled, “When you ask like that, how could I refuse you, Sasuke-kun?” After all, nothing ventured, nothing gained. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Translation Note:** The chapter title literally translates as “Pulling water to my own rice paddy,” which kinda means doing or saying something to benefit oneself. I’ll leave it to the reader to guess who that refers to.
> 
>  **Story Note(s):** I’m a college student with a fascination (and a minor!) in linguistics and culture. I’ve been studying Japan for about two years now and will make some mistakes. If you happen to notice any _please_ let me know. That being said, I’ll be including more applicable things from Japanese culture in the story. Nothing game changing and I’ll provide cultural context at the end of each chapter as necessary, in case any of you are culture nerds like me.
> 
> This story will update every two weeks or so. I’m going out of the country this semester, so it depends on how much my sister writes and how hard learning in German is. As a note, this chapter has been updated since it was posted. Mostly to fix glaring typos, tense issues and such. This is why one should never edit their own work late at night. I hope you enjoyed reading and I’ll see you next week (or more likely the week after) for chapter 2!


	2. 角を矯めて牛を殺す (Tsuno o tamete ushi o korosu)

The moment Kakashi opened his eyes, he knew it hadn’t worked. Even without looking he could tell that he was an adult: his body ached in the same familiar way it had since before he’d left ANBU and the weight of hitai-ite over his left eye confirmed that it was too late to save Obito. He’d allowed himself to hope, if only momentarily, that he could have a second chance. That  _ Obito  _ could have a second chance. The reality that he would  _ always _ have to live with the price of his youthful arrogance was painful and for a moment, he allowed himself to simply lie on his bed and indulge in self-pity.

Though speaking of youthful arrogance, though, he should probably make sure his adorable students had survived this latest misadventure. After all, Kakashi would be a terrible teacher if he didn’t even know whether they had blown themselves up.

With a final glance around the room, Kakashi finally levered himself up and went through the motions of getting ready for his day. However, small things about the apartment started to put him on edge. The bonsai tree Kurenai had given to him after declaring his apartment “a hopelessly barren wasteland” was gone. And the “poison’s of the shinobi nations” collection Anko’d periodically added to was too small; missing some, but strangely not all, of the incongruously brightly decorated vials. Perhaps most telling, however, were the “Youthfully Motivating Posters” he knew he’d managed to dump a couple of years back, hanging smugly back on his walls. That last one couldn’t simply be explained by a thief of surprising skill and rather eclectic taste breaking into his apartment. In fact, Kakashi was slowly starting to consider, that perhaps it wasn’t that the jutsu hadn’t worked. Perhaps, when his wayward student had told them they could go to the time  _ they  _ most wanted to change, Sasuke had really meant the time  _ he _ had wanted to change. Running a hand through his hair in frustration - because really he  _ should _ have known better than to trust anything Sasuke had come up with -  he looked more critically around the apartment. 

The apartment was clearly his own, there was no mistaking that, but it was also clearly different than it had been the night before. The windows and the furniture were all in the places they should be, but the smaller details were all wrong. Given the timing, the most logical explanation - as ridiculous as it was to think - was time travel. Perhaps, Kakashi thought, he had been too hasty in his initial assessment and they  _ had _ traveled back in time - just not nearly far enough for it to matter.  And since one of the things that was most conspicuously missing was the picture of Team 7, it would seem that he no longer had any sensei-duties to perform after all.

Pausing for a moment, Kakashi tried to remember what responsibilities he’d had before Team 7. He was clearly not in ANBU anymore, which meant that besides the monthly mission quota, no one should be expecting anything of him. Well except for Gai, and Anko, and come to think of it, probably Kurenai and Asuma as well. But he’d always been a bit of an negligent friend so they probably wouldn’t think it too strange for him to “get lost in the passage of time” and completely miss anything he didn’t know to attend.

With nothing more pressing, Kakashi found himself walking to the memorial stone. He had been  _ so _ close. Obito would probably tease him, but Kakashi thinks he would at least appreciate that Kakashi had made the attempt. It was strange how much Konoha had changed in the last couple of years, Kakashi thought idly walking through the crowded streets. Here was the city he loved, still at peace and untouched by all the tragedy that would come. When he got to the memorial stone, it was almost a shock to see it so empty. Except it wasn’t enough, because Obito’s was still there and there was nothing Kakashi could do to change that.

“Obito,” he began quietly, “there’s so much that’s happened since the last time I came here.” And he paused for a minute, trying to put into words the things that were bothering him. “I couldn’t save you. I had a chance and I tried to take it, but it was foolish. My students,” and here, Kakashi isn’t quite sure how to proceed because although he’s told Obito everything about his team, that hasn’t happened yet, and this Obito probably doesn’t know anything about them. “Well, they’re a lot like we were actually. Naruto is so much like Kushina, you’d adore him. Sakura, well she’s not quite like Rin, but I think you’d like her anyway. And then there’s Sasuke and he’s, well you’d probably hate him as much as you hated me,” and here Kakashi can’t help smiling a bit, although there’s not much humor in anything involving Sasuke, “he’s certainly not any better at the whole teamwork thing. But they, well, Sasuke ,found a way to go back in time.” Saying it out loud, actually doesn’t make it sound any better and he can imagine the confused disbelief Obito would be wearing trying to figure out what Kakashi’s angle was. “Yes, I know it’s a bit unbelievable, and probably allowing them to try something that dangerous makes me a bad teacher, but it’s not like you wouldn’t have done the same thing if our positions were reversed. I couldn’t let the chance for us to be a real team disappear without at least trying.”

And that was really the crux of it. He loved his new team, but it was also impossible for him to let go of the dreams he had for his old team. It would take a while for him to adjust to the fact that he had been so close to fixing everything only for it to disappear like the dream it was the moment he opened his eyes. Kakashi would get over it eventually and find a new goal in this new time, but for the moment he couldn’t find the motivation to do anything but sit here by the reminder of his greatest mistakes.

“Ah, my eternal rival!” Gai called loudly, his voice breaking Kakashi from his meditation some hours later, “What a joyful surprise to happen upon you on a day so full with the promise of youth!”

Gai with all his rather  _ colorful _ personality quirks had always been a talented ninja, but lacked any particular understanding of how to interact with people. Which was why Kakashi thought he must not be masking his emotions as well as he should be because in the many years of their acquaintanceship, Kakashi had come to realize that Gai generally dealt with concern by being extra exuberant. Trying to see if there was any hope for avoiding an awkward attempt at a heart-to-heart, he responded with the expected, disinterested, “Yo.”

“I knew you were too cool, Kakashi, but I didn’t realize you were so cruel as to deny the fires of youth the chance to burn brightly in your new students! Hokage-sama called a mandatory meeting for all of this year’s jounin-sensei two hours ago, will you not even look at your new students’ files?,” and even Gai couldn’t quite chanel enough “nice-guy charm” to hide his disapproval.

“Maa maa. I was simply lost on the road of life,” Kakashi responded, reflecting that it was perhaps the most honest excuse he had ever given, “Was there anything else?”

“I want to challenge you to a race! If I can run 300 laps around the perimeter of the village before you can get to the Hokage tower, you will agree to meet your students at the academy tomorrow!” Gai said, “With the future of Konoha riding on this outcome, I won’t lose to you!”

“Mmm,” Kakashi returned although if Gai’s disappearance was any indicator, his response was largely superfluous. But Gai’s words had given him something to think about. A genin team. Given the fact that they had clearly gone back in time to when  _ someone _ most wanted to change - and given who was involved that someone was certainly Sasuke - and that it was the day before genin teams were announced - a fact which was only significant in the lives of recent academy graduates - it didn’t take a genius to figure out who his genin team might be. That just left what to do about it.

Turning back to the memorial stone, Kakashi sighed, “Obito, no matter how bad of a team we were, I don’t think  _ we _ ever caused Minato-sensei this much trouble.” But he was already starting to plan. Upset as he was about not being able to save Obito, it was clear that the memorial stone was not nearly as full as it had been in the future and whether he had really wanted to be here or not, Kakashi did have the chance to change things and he would be a fool not to take it. Starting tomorrow, he would take his duties as a teacher a bit more seriously. After all endurance training was a good way to show just how  _ much _ he cared. And maybe he would even get there a little bit early just to see the looks on his adorable students’ faces.

As Kakashi turned away from the stone, he realized that quite some time had passed and started to seek out a restaurant for dinner, more at peace with his direction than he had been in quite some time.

***

It was with more than a little disorientation that Naruto woke up that evening. Everything looked slightly off, though he couldn’t quite place what had changed. The sun was well on its way to setting, and his entire apartment was bathed in a rather lethargic, warm glow, so that he had to struggle to resist the temptation to fall back asleep. Without Kakashi-sensei or Sakura yelling at him, Naruto was having trouble finding the motivation to get up and dressed. Still, it really was quite late and with over half the day gone, he didn’t have any excuse for lazing about any longer. Not to mention how difficult it would be to get back on a regular sleep schedule after losing a whole day. It was at that point, when he went to sit up, that Naruto realized what was wrong. He was little again. Really little. Possibly academy student little. With a huge grin and a loud  _ whoop _ , Naruto jumped off his bed and, though a combination of skill and luck, managed not to fall flat on his face. Reverting to his height pre-puberty was going to take more than a little getting used to, he realized. The important thing though, was that it had actually worked. Sasuke had been right about the seal, and now the four of them, Team 7, were going to get another chance to fix  _ everything _ .

It didn’t take Naruto long to get ready for the day. Having apparently fallen asleep in his orange jumpsuit, and not having anything better to change into, there wasn’t really much getting ready to do. Next was figuring out just _when_ today was and where _he_ was supposed to be. A quick examination of his room, no headband and a dusty stack of school books, told him he hadn’t graduated yet and, if the calendar had been kept up to date, which was debatable, today would be… Crap! He’d missed the graduation exam.

Naruto hit his head against the wall. Of all the possible days to come back to, and of all the possible times, this was the absolute worst, he thought melodramatically. Well, there was nothing for it at this point. He’d have to see if Iruka-sensei was willing to let him have another shot at the test. While he couldn’t remember that much about his academy days, most of them having been spent asleep or absent, Iruka had always been something of an older brother figure to him, and he was pretty sure he could sweet talk him into giving him another shot.

“Absolutely not,” Iruka said in an infuriatingly patronizing tone. “None of the other students got to retake their tests, Naruto. I can’t just go around making exceptions for you. Remember, a ninja must always be punctual, I can’t help it that-” Naruto watched Iruka in a state of disbelief. The other ninja had managed to turn his simple request into full blown lecture, as if this should be some sort of  _ learning  _ opportunity. While Naruto had thought convincing Iruka would be a bit difficult, he had expected to be given at least a  _ chance  _ to defend himself. It was almost like Iruka’d been preparing for this moment since Naruto failed to show up for his exam. With a sense of detachment and slight depression, Naruto stood helpless, absently noting how emphatically Iruka moved his hands around as he spoke, as if it were his duty to convince the entire village that Naruto shouldn’t be allowed a chance to graduate. It wasn’t fair, he thought angrily. He’d done everything he could, it wasn’t his fault he’d slept in. Sasuke had kept him up all night and failed to mention just how draining going several years back in time would be. Why couldn’t anything ever work out right in his life?

“I’ll do anything, Iruka-sensei,” Naruto blurted, not able to take it anymore, “Anything! I’ll even help you grade papers for a year, I just want to graduate with Sasuke and Sakura and all my friends.” Iruka stopped mid-sentence and looked at him.

“What did you say, Naruto?” He asked, his confused expression at odds with the sudden look of keen attention on his face.

Not sure what Iruka wanted, Naruto repeated uncertainly, “I’ll do anything, if you’ll let me graduate with the rest of my friends?” Iruka slowly nodded to himself, and Naruto couldn’t suppress the hope and relief that began to spread through him. If Iruka let him take the genin test, there was no way he’d fail this time. Most of the theory stuff should be a piece of cake now, and while clones still required a significant amount of focus, Naruto thought he might be able to distract Iruka long enough to make a shadow clone. As for henge, if was even required, training with Jiraiya had forced Naruto to at least become proficient with it, even if he didn’t enjoy it as much as his own, sexier version.

So focused was he on the logistics of actually passing the test, that it took Naruto an almost embarrassingly long time to realize Iruka had spoken again. “I’m sorry Naruto, I really am, but I just can’t make exceptions for anyone. You’ll have another chance to pass the test next year. And who knows, by that time you might even be able to make it to the top of the class!” His cheerful grin felt like a punch to the gut as the hope and optimism Naruto’d just begun to feel withered away. He’d failed. Sasuke had given him a second chance, and he’d managed to blow it within the first day. Not quite sure what else he could do, Naruto nodded his understanding and began to walk away. Who could he tell, he wondered. Would Kakashi be able to intercede for him? Or maybe the old man, Hokage. He’d always had a soft spot for Naruto. Considering the fact Sasuke was on his team the first time around, and he’d failed the test then too, someone had to have wanted him to pass. There was no way the village would have held back the rookie of the year just because Naruto had failed to make a convincing clone.

Finding himself absorbed in his thoughts for the second time in about as many minutes, Naruto really shouldn’t have been as surprised as he was when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He jumped back immediately, acting on instinct as he tried to put as much distance as he could between him and his attacker. And, while his reflexes were still surprisingly sharp, especially considering how distracted he’d been and the whole time travel thing, they weren’t able to keep him from overestimating the length of his legs and falling down on his butt with an undignified squeak. “Naruto-kun,” said the stranger, who now that Naruto thought about it, he might recognize as a ninja. The chunin flak jacket helped with that. “there’s something I have to tell you, come with me.” The man’s white hair and kinda polite, kinda evil face seemed really familiar, Naruto thought.  _ Where had  _ he seen the man before? He had a feeling it was really important, but couldn’t quite place him. Accepting the outstretched hand anyway, after all, there was no way a mere chunin could beat him, Naruto pulled himself back to his feet. After he fixed this whole graduation mess, he was going to need to spend a solid week re-learning how to move around in his younger body. And, not seeing any real reason not to, Naruto then proceeded to follow the man down some of the sketchier alleyways of Konoha. He knew he knew this man, it was on the tip of his tongue. Where had he  _ seen  _ him before? “Hey, you’re that creepy academy teacher!” Naruto yelled. “Mizuki, or something like that…,” he trailed off, realizing he’d said all that out loud. Nothing for it, he supposed. It wasn’t like Mizuki was even that important of a person. After he’d tricked Naruto into stealing the fancy scroll thing, Naruto hadn’t heard from him again. It was kinda funny in a way, how people popped in and out each other’s lives like that. He kinda wondered what did happen to Mizuki after the whole betrayal thing. Had he ever been caught?

Mizuki, for his part, didn’t seem to know how to react. Naruto caught a number of expressions flash across his face, almost too quickly to note. But, years of practice reading Sasuke had made him kinda an expert at cataloguing nano-expressions. There was annoyance, which was kinda fair. Naruto had all but fessed up to not recognizing a man who had been one of his primary academy teachers. It wasn’t his fault the guy had been so forgettable. What he hadn’t really expected was the fury underneath that, or the cold, calculating blankness that followed. He knew, objectively, that some people blamed him for all the people that the kyuubi had killed, and that Mizuki was among those who felt that way. But it still hurt. It had been years since anyone had looked at him with that much hate, in Konoha at least, and he really wasn’t looking forward to going through all that again. The cruelty and blankness were what really unnerved him though. Mizuki knew exactly what he was doing. This wasn’t some poorly thought out attempt to get Naruto killed. It was a calculated effort, though what he thought he would gain, Naruto didn’t know. There was no way he honestly thought he could get some academy kid to steal a top secret scroll, give it to him and not have managed to set off enough alarms to set half of Konoha’s ANBU after him.

Not that Naruto really cared about Mizuki or his plans. He’d survived this the first time and there was no way the second time around would be any harder. All he really cared about was another shot at graduation. As long as Iruka tried to rescue him again, there was no way Naruto could fail.

They meandered through a number of alleys until they were near the Hokage tower, if Naruto’s mental map of Konoha was still accurate. “You know, Naruto-kun,” Mizuki began, in what Naruto was sure he meant to be a kind and reassuring voice, “Iruka isn’t trying to be mean. He really does want you to graduate. He just wants you to be the best ninja you can be. He’s strict because he cares about you.” Naruto recognized this speech, the words were a little different, but the intent of the thing was the same. It took all of his  _ considerable  _ self-control not to grin. It really  _ was  _ going to happen again! While the timing was a little off, that wouldn’t matter that much in the grand scheme of things. “Though, there’s another way to become a genin. I probably shouldn’t tell you. But… Oh, I think you deserve it. This is your third attempt to graduate, isn’t it? Now, don’t tell anyone I told you this, it’s a secret-” As Mizuki kept talking, obviously attempting to put him at ease, Naruto felt his eyes glazing over. What was it with the ninja in this village and turning everything into a lecture? Still, long practice listening to Jiraiya go on and on about women and his research had given Naruto the very useful skill of nodding at the appropriate moments and looking at least somewhat engaged. Why couldn’t he just get to the point though? It wasn’t like they had all night.

As soon as Mizuki stopped talking, Naruto looked up at him and grinned. “I’ll do it,” he said, bouncing on his toes a little. Then, because he couldn’t resist and it was definitely something his younger self would have said, he added “Believe it!” As excited as he was, Naruto didn’t miss the look of sadistic glee on Mizuki’s face. Poor fool, wouldn’t be nearly as happy once ANBU caught up with him in a few hours. It was for the best, Naruto thought, that Mizuki enjoy himself while he could.

***

Sakura was bored. It was strange how _dull_ the academy seemed the second time around. The first time, boys and grades had distracted her, but without any of the anxiety from either of those, there really wasn’t much else to keep her interest. Especially considering today was the graduation ceremony, and Iruka-sensei was lecturing them on what a “big step” this was in their lives. Because, of course, requiring a full-time babysitter and replacing their right to leave the village with their right to complete D-rank missions was _such_ a _big step_.

Without any conscious effort on her part, Sakura found her attention drifting. Yesterday, she had been so overwhelmed she hadn’t been able to pay attention to much to anything. From waking up as a child, with her mother fussing over her, to arriving at the academy and immediately being confronted with the graduation, she had been too confused to analyse the situation. The adrenalin from trying to remember what simplistic answers the teachers expected lasted her well past lunch. It wasn’t until that evening, after dinner, that she had even had a chance to process anything that had happened that day.

At first she had, rather logically, assumed this whole mess was a dream of some sort, but once she took into account the level of detail, the duration and the overall consistency, she had tentatively rejected the idea. Her next thought had been some sort of genjutsu, but again, the level of detail and consistency combined with the lack of motive and the fact that disrupting her chakra hadn’t ended it, made that rather unlikely. Which left her with not much else. Ruling out insanity, mostly because she  _ really  _ didn’t want it to be the case, she was forced her to conclude this was all some sort of hallucination, likely caused by a poison since she hadn’t been ill or on medication. Although there still didn’t seem to be much motive behind it, the theory fit best with the facts she had at hand. She hoped her real body was okay. Judging by the severity of the hallucinations, it was likely catatonic. With luck, Kakashi-sensei or someone would find it in the morning and make sure it was properly attended to. And then, realizing there was absolutely nothing she could do that would have any impact on the real world, Sakura decided she might as well play along. After all, there were much worse things her mind could throw at her than reliving her early genin days.

Disguising a yawn, Sakura looked idly around the classroom. It was strange how familiar the academy felt even after all these years. She wondered how much of of the room was based on memory and how much her mind had fabricated to fill in the gaps. Everything felt right, even with the number of things that she didn’t actively remember, like the strangely Kiba-shaped dent in the wall, right under the second window, or the crack at the top of the blackboard that she could have sworn had only been a nick.

As she continued looking around, Sakura was somewhat surprised to note that neither Naruto nor Sasuke were here, though most of the other students she  _ remembered  _ were present. After joining Team 7, even she had mostly forgotten the names and faces of the kids who failed. 

Where were her teammates? Perhaps, she thought bitterly, it was a reflection of her subconscious desires. Since she had always, in the back of her mind, felt a bit overshadowed by them, her hallucination now failed to include them. Maybe her subconscious had decided that removing them was the only way she would have a chance to stand on her own. She wondered what that said about her, that even her subconscious didn’t think she could beat them on her own merits. Deciding that wasn’t a line of inquiry she really wanted to follow, Sakura looked back at Iruka. He was still talking. Had he talked this long the first time around? It was then, as she was watching the odd way his hair bobbed while he spoke that she noticed something was missing. His headband was gone.She was still in the process of deciding whether that was an important piece to unraveling the direction of this hallucination or just another irrelevant detail when Naruto came in.

Hallucination-Naruto was just as loud as his real life counterpart and equally tactless, Sakura thought as he threw open the door only to look sheepishly around the now silent classroom. He did, however, apologize to Iruka-sensei before jogging over and collapsing next to her, something she was sure that the real Naruto had never had the guts to do. Granted, when she had actually gone through this the first time, Sakura had a tendency to sit with Ino rather than alone at the far end of the classroom. Before Sakura had a chance to react, Naruto had already scooted close to her and leaned his head next to her ear.

“So… uh, there’s something I need to tell you, Sakura-chan,” Naruto whispered, or what Sakura assumed was as close of an approximation as Naruto could physically get to a whisper. Looking more nervous than Sakura had seen him be in quite some time, he began, “So, here it goes. Last night, well the last night we were still in the future, Sasuke kinda barged into my room, sat on my chest and started rambling about traveling back in time, to now, and fixing everything with this seal thing he’d found, probaby with Orochimaru. I knew we couldn’t trust Sasuke with something as important as this on his own, so I went and got Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke went and got you, but Sasuke’s kinda a bastard and so he brought you over unconscious and there really wasn’t enough time to wait for you to wake up so we just sorta went for it. And I know we should have asked you first, and I wanted to, but Sasuke was said that we were on a really tight schedule. I’m really super sorry. Please don’t be mad?”

Don’t be mad? Oh, Sakura was mad all right. Vaguely touched that they’d decided to include her, yes, but that only served to anger her more. She was only half aware that Iruka-sensei had paused his lecture to scold Naruto for talking in class, the larger part of her attention was spent trying to figure out how this new development fit into her existing understanding of what  _ exactly  _ was going on. While Naruto’s story didn’t  _ necessarily  _ contradict any of her previous hypothesis, it was debatably simpler and definitely more consistent. Ultimately, she decided, if this really was some form of hallucination, it wouldn’t hurt anything to believe Naruto, but if he was right, it would give them a second chance to stop the Akatsuki and keep Konoha safe. Either way, both of her boys needed a reminder on basic etiquette and why it was a bad idea to mess with her. 

“You better watch yourself during sparring practice, Naruto, because the moment, Kakashi-sensei turns his back I’m going to show you exactly how I feel about being kidnapped to the past,” Sakura hissed, but then softened a bit, “But count me in. We’ll finally be a team again, yeah? Though, out of curiosity, how _did_ you manage to pass your graduation exam. I was a bit out of things yesterday, but you definitely weren’t even here.”

Naruto looked embarrassed. “Um, well… after I missed the exam I kinda ran into Mizuki-sensei, who is definitely still a traitor, and he tried to trick me into stealing this scroll for him, which I did, of course. Then there was this epic battle oh, it was awesome Sakura-chan!” Naruto said, but before Sakura can find out what was so awesome about it and what rules Naruto managed to bend  _ this time _ , the door opened and in strolled an unmistakably early Kakashi-sensei.

“Team 7, you’re with me,” he called out, somehow making it sound like barging into the academy  _ early _ was something he had done so often it was routine. Sakura was not normally one to judge people, but she would be willing to bet an entire week full of D-rank missions that the only reason Kakashi-sensei was here so early was that he had forgotten when team assignments were given out and assumed it had happened two hours ago, when the academy normally began.

“Ah, Kakashi-san, you’re… uhm... early. We haven’t given team assignments out yet,” Iruka said, clearly looking a bit flustered, “But, uh, we can start with Team 7.”

“Maa maa, don’t trouble yourself. Just send them up to the roof when you’re ready,” Kakashi-sensei replied, disappearing in a puff of smoke. Which was. Sakura thought, about as close as Kakashi-sensei ever came to admitting embarrassment… or apologizing.

“Well then, I suppose since your jounin instructor is already here, we’ll start team assignments with Team 7,” Iruka said with a forced brightness Sakura was sure even the other academy students noticed, “Uzamaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Itachi, please report to your instructor… uhm, on the roof.”

***

Deep underground, Sasuke awoke.

“Ah you’re awake at last, Sasuke-kun,” said an all too familiar voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Translation Note:** The chapter title means "The remedy is often worse than the disease," which in this case means the action taken to put something right is often more unpleasant or damaging than the original problem.
> 
> As always, thanks for reading. I'm heading off to Germany tonight, so it might be a bit more than two weeks before the next update. Until next time.


	3. 雨降って 地固まる (Ame futte ji katamaru)

Uchiha _Itachi_. After a revelation like that, Sakura wasn’t really sure what to think. She had been prepared to get to the roof and give Uchiha _Sasuke_ a piece of her mind for dragging her back here without even asking if she gave consent. But Uchiha _Itachi’s_ presence has rather definitively ruined that plan. As she began walking toward the classroom door, Sakura tried to start putting together all of the admittedly limited pieces she had to work with. Sasuke was obviously missing, that much was clear from the fact that neither she nor Naruto knew where he was. In his place was a mini version of his _older_ brother. She actually had no idea how she herself had gotten here or where here really was; previously she had taken the similarities to her memories for granted - and Naruto’s confidence in the matter - leading to the assumption that she really had traveled back in time. But given the evidence before her, that might not actually have been true. Which meant, what? An alter-

“Ah, my adorable student, you finally decided to grace you poor old sensei with your presence,” Kakashi said, pulling Sakura from her thoughts. With some bemusement, Sakura noted that she had made it all the way to the roof, and it was a good thing she was a kid and no one expected anything of her right now, because that sort of inattention was not something she could really afford in as a ninja.

She was vaguely aware of Naruto retorting with something about how him being weirdly early wasn’t the same as them being late, and absently made a note to remind him to be careful about the sort of things he said in front of Itachi, but most of her attention was focused on looking around the roof to see if there was any further proof that they weren’t in the same past they had experienced the first time around. The sun was shining rather brightly, which made Sakura grateful for the concrete floor they were standing on, but while it did make it difficult to pick out any exact details, it didn’t seem out of place. She thought she remembered it being sunny the first time around. Unfortunately, she reflected, the problem with looking here for details was that she hadn’t really been paying much attention to her surroundings the first time around, too intent on her crush to have much interest in anything else. So with a small sigh, she gave it up and turned back to her instructor.

“Why don’t we sit down and get to know each other a bit better?” Kakashi suggested, using his _Icha-Icha_ book to cover a yawn.

“Introduce ourselves? What should we say?” Naruto asked, promptly sitting down. Sakura was starting to get a sense of deja vu here, it probably wasn’t exactly what he’d said the first time around, but the general sense was pretty close.

“Hmm… Likes, dislikes… Hobbies, dreams for the future. Things like that,” Kakashi answered blandly, “Since you’re so eager, why don’t you start, blondy.”

“Okay!” Naruto began, “My name is Uzumaki Naruto, believe it! Umm, I like my precious people and… ramen! I dislike… snakes and people who betray the village! My hobby is… umm… trying all the different types of ramen! And my goal is that one day I will become Hokage.”

Sakura did her best not to let her annoyance show. Naruto had obviously been trying to remember exactly what he’d said the first time and hadn’t exactly been subtle about groping for answers. Luckily their third teammate probably wouldn’t understand exactly why Naruto had so much trouble with the exercise, though they would definitely need to work on being less obvious.

“Alright, Pinky, you’re next.”

“My name is Haruno Sakura,” she started, trying to come up with hobbies and goals that wouldn’t seem suspicious and wouldn’t leave her fumbling as obviously as Naruto had, “I like my friends and studying. Umm... I dislike people who don’t respect consent,” and although Sasuke himself was unfortunately not here to hear her, Sakura couldn’t quite prevent her tone from darkening at that statement, but since she didn’t outright glare at Naruto, she considered that a victory of self-control, “As a hobby I enjoy reading… And my goal is to become a medic-nin as talented as Senju Tsunade-hime.”

There, that should be suitably bland. With Itachi this close at hand, Sakura was careful not to give anything too valuable about herself away. Revealing personal likes and dislikes could give him a definite advantage whenever he decided that he was done playing the innocent child and betrayed them.

“And finally you kiddo,” Kakashi said. If his boredom were feigned, Sakura had no way to tell it. He didn’t seem at all phased that he had a future murderer for a student, and for a moment, Sakura began to contemplate what that might mean. Was it possible that this wasn’t _her_ Kakashi-sensei? Naruto had said that he had brought him back in time as well, but with Sasuke already missing, it wasn’t that far off to contemplate maybe their Kakashi had also ended up somewhere else. But then Itachi started to speak and Sakura brought her attention back to him - the more she knew about him, the better.

“My name is Uchiha Itachi,” he began and Sakura noticed for the first time exactly how small he was, probably three or four years younger than she was, now, “I like the taste of the dango that nii-san makes. There are not many things I truly dislike. As a hobby, I enjoy learning new things. I don’t have a dream, but I do have a goal,” and here Sakura was painfully reminded of the first time she had done this and she had no idea what she would do if that same arrogant proclamation of revenge were to cross the lips of this child who was the incarnation of all of Sasuke’s pain. Luckily she didn’t have to find out because instead, he finished with, “My goal is to clear _ani_ ’s name and bring him back to village where he belongs.”

_Ani_ \- older brother... Sakura began to think, but then Naruto butted in, “Wait, why do you need to clear your older brother’s name? And if he’s outside the village, how come he’s still making you dango?”

Normally, Sakura would be annoyed at Naruto’s bluntness, but at the moment she found herself too curious about the answer to begrudge him the questions.

“Pardon. When I referred to the dango I meant it in reference to Shisui-nii and when I was talking about my goal, I was referring to my brother Sasuke.”

Sasuke has done something that needs pardoning, Sakura contemplated, what could he - oh, of course. If Itachi was here and Sasuke was outside the village, that must mean they had somehow switched places here. But again, before she was able to think too long on the implications of that bombshell, Naruto is asking another question.

“Wait, so does that mean you have two big brothers? Why is one of them missing?” Naruto’s sense of tact had always been a bit hit and miss and if it had been someone else, she would have felt sorry for them.

“Ah. No, Sasuke is my only brother, but I live with my older cousin Shisui and he has always been like a brother to me,” Itachi answered calmly.

“Sure, sure okay. Cousin, brother not really important. Why did your actual brother get kicked out of the village?” Naruto’s patience is also not something that is usually envied.

“The council has found him responsible for the destruction of one of Konoha’s founding clans. A crime of that magnitude would have been a death sentence had he remained in the village.” Sakura isn’t really sure what to make of how calm Itachi remained while talking about the death of his clan and she didn’t find it promising that even after their death he was distancing himself from Konoha and his clan, not even mentioning that the founding clan had been his family.

“What, which clan did he kill?” And Sakura couldn’t help but feel curious about Itachi’s reaction, which she imagined must have been Naruto’s goal when asking such a pointed thing.

“Ah, he was accused of killing the Uchiha, my clan,” Itachi answered. And it was subtle, but he did actually seem slightly subdued by this. Sakura wasn’t sure whether that made things better or worse. On the one hand it did prove that deep down he had at least some human tendencies; on the other, monsters were easier to sympathise with when they showed humanity, and if she let her guard down now it would only give him a better opportunity when he inevitably betrayed them.

“And on that cheerful note,” Kakashi cut in,”we’re going to be doing a survival exercise tomorrow at 5 am sharp. In the end only two of you will actually be graduating and one of you will have to go back and repeat the academy. Oh, and make sure you don’t eat breakfast tomorrow, it would be inconvenient if you threw up.”

Sakura nodded and made a mental note to find Naruto after dinner to talk about subtlety and not letting the Uchiha find out they were from the future.

  
  


***

Naruto shivered and groaned to himself as he made his way through the mostly dormant streets of Konoha. He hated his life, hated mornings and hated Kakashi. While ninja villages were never truly asleep, the village was pretty silent this early in the morning barring the standard chunin patrols and the occasional early riser. It was dark enough that the stars were still clearly visible and the air had a crisp, cold taste to it, as if the weather hadn’t gotten the memo it was supposed to be spring already.

Naruto suppressed another shiver. Technically, it was dawn, but only by the loosest of definitions. The sun wouldn't even be _visible_ on the horizon for nearly an hour, let alone start to warm things up.. Sometimes his life really sucked.

Originally, Naruto had planned on skipping the entire bell test, it wasn't like Kakashi-sensei could fail them. But, after team introductions he and Sakura had had a bit of a… chat, and she’d had a good point. With the kid on their team, they all needed to play their parts. Which meant he had to actually be _excited_ for the first test of his genin career, even if that meant getting to the training grounds before six in the morning. So, as painful as it had been, Naruto had set his alarm for five and managed to get himself dressed and out of bed . His only consolation was that Sakura had to go through the same thing, but _worse_ because she always took longer to get ready . And, while a tired Sakura was sure to be irritable and likely to resort to physical violence, misery loved company, and Naruto was not above enjoying himself at his teammate's expense.

This happy thought sustained Naruto all the way to the training field up until he noticed Sakura’s conspicuous absence. There _was_ a small figure on the far edge of the field, but the silhouette was wrong and limbs were too short to be Sakura, even in child form. While it was possible she was just running later than he was, Naruto knew even before he'd finished thinking it that it wasn't true. Sakura didn’t do tardy, not on purpose. If she wasn’t here already, she wasn't planning on coming any time soon. And even as he wondered what excuse she could possibly use, Naruto's shoulders slumped. It was going to be a _very_ long morning.

Still, there was nothing he could about it now. The kid had noticed him, and even though he wanted nothing more than to go home, there was no turning back. Squaring his shoulders, Naruto began to slowly meander over. He managed to waste nearly an entire five minutes working his way across the training field to where the kid was standing,head tilted slightly, watching as Naruto made his way over. Naruto held up a hand in a rough approximation of a wave and grinned tiredly. The kid didn't bother to return the gesture, just looked him over briefly before straining to look behind him, no doubt searching for Sakura and Kakashi-sensei. Naruto wanted to tell him not to bother, that it was a waste of time, they wouldn’t be there for hours yet. But he remained silent, knowing, even half-asleep as he was, that telling the Uchiha anything would give too much away.

With nothing better to do, Naruto wandered past the kid to one of the nearby trees and leaned against it. The bark was rough against his back and the ground smelled of dirt and moss, but it was comfortable enough. If he was going to be stuck waiting for Kakashi all morning, he might as well get a nap out of it. And while it was cold and he could almost feel the eyes of everyone in the village watching him, Naruto had surprisingly little difficulty falling asleep.

Movement woke him an hour or so later, his instincts screaming to move, to hide. And he tried, but the combination of stiffness from sleeping upright, numbness from the cold and his general unfamiliarity with his younger body caused him to fall gracelessly on his side. After scrambling back into a seated position, it didn't take long to identify the source of the disturbance. The kid had been throwing kunai and apparently one of them had hit a tree a couple of meters away from he’d been resting. Naruto grimaced, first having to wake up on time for Kakashi’s stupid bell test and now making a fool of himself in front of Sasuke’s kid brother, this really wasn't his day. By that point the kid had retrieved his knives and was standing warily over him, obviously debating whether or not he was okay. Gathering what little remained of his dignity, Naruto shooed him away.

The sun was more or less up, or at least visible on the horizon, he noted, when his nerves calmed down enough to focus again, and faint noises of civilian life drifted in the air. His back was still stiff and his fingers and toes all a little numb, but for the most part, he was fine. The kid had gone back to practicing, forms by the look of it. Naruto smiled slightly, the kid was going through each set flawlessly. His attention to detail was really good, especially considering how young he looked. The fact he was all knees and elbows didn't really diminish the fluidity he managed to put into his movements, nor did his ridiculously Uchiha shirt. Naruto couldn’t help but liking the kid. He was cute and his obvious dedication to training was absolutely adorable. He moved with a confidence and surety that reminded Naruto a bit of Sasuke, and it was pretty clear the kid spent hours practicing his forms. Sure, most of them were academy stuff, but there were a few extra ones that relied on acrobatics, speed and dexterity. They reminded Naruto so strongly of Sasuke's fighting style it hurt, though he guessed they were probably just Uchiha clan techniques.

The kid must have noticed him watching. Once he finished the set he had been working on, he walked back over to Naruto. Refusing to feel embarrassed for having been caught staring, Naruto grinned, waved to him and said, in as bright a voice as he could manage, tired as he was, "Hey."

"Good morning, Uzumaki-san," the kid said after a beat. His eyes flicked to Naruto's face briefly before looking away, and he hesitated, as if he wanted to say something more. Naruto waited for him to continue, but after a moment of silence, the kid turned away.

Apparently Sasuke wasn't the only Uchiha incapable of prolonged speech. It was genetic. Naruto sighed, "You know," he said conversationally, "we're on the same team, you can just call me Naruto, or Naruto-sama if you prefer." The kid looked over at him, his face almost eerily blank, though practice reading Sasuke made him suspect it was just to cover the kid's confusion. After a moment of intense scrutiny, he brushed stray lock of hair out of his face nodded.

"Thank you, Naruto-sama," he said softly, hesitating noticeably and looking away before the name. Naruto couldn't help himself, he laughed. The kid had looked serious and so much like Sasuke. Even after calling him “sama”, Naruto hadn't quite been able to shake the similarities, but there was no way his ex-teammate would have said that, even as a joke. As repressed and distant and Uchiha as the kid was, he was still a good kid, Naruto decided. And after a moment, the kid almost smiled as well, his lip twitching slightly upward into a painfully familiar expression. Naruto closed his eyes. The kid wasn't Sasuke and would never be Sasuke, he reminded himself. So, it would be for the best to stop seeing Sasuke in everything the kid did. Knowing that didn't make it any easier though.

Before the silence could become oppressive, the kid turned away and went back to his practice. Blocks and strikes seamlessly flowed into each other as he methodically executed each of  the academy forms, steadily gaining speed as he worked his way through each set. And before too long, Naruto found all the precise and practiced movements blending together as, slowly, he again drifted off to sleep.

It was close to ten by the time Naruto woke up again, feeling far more refreshed than he had before. The sun was high in the sky and all traces of the cold predawn were no more than a distant memory. Realizing that even if he had been tired enough, falling asleep so close to when Kakashi-sensei should finally arrive would be a bad idea, Naruto shoved himself into a more upright position and shook the worst of the kinks out of his neck, shoulders and back. The kid had stopped practicing at some point and now sat opposite Naruto, his back against a tree. He looked exhausted, and while his breathing was well regulated, Naruto could see a sheen of sweat slowly drying on his hair and face. Five hours of practice could do that to a person, even without factoring in his age and the lack of food and sleep Kakashi-sensei had demanded for his little test. Naruto hoped the kid would be alright. The whole bell thing would be an even bigger waste of time if the only one who hadn't taken it before was half-asleep. Tired as he clearly was, the kid had collapsed in on himself, his head resting sideways on his knees while he drew senseless patterns in the dirt, shivering slightly whenever the wind blew.

Still as he was, the kid looked very young. Naruto knew he couldn't say much, even though he was technically 16, he still wasn't that old. Hidden villages only survived because they were constantly training new talent. Ninjas died young. But for the first time, Naruto found himself thinking about what that meant. The first time around they had only been twelve, thirteen in Sakura's case, and already they had killed. Haku, Zabuza, the Demon Brothers, all dead because of a bunch of preteens and their teacher. But looking at the kid, Naruto doubted he was much more than eight, nine at the absolute oldest. What sort of person threw such a young child into danger for no reason? Itachi wasn't technically old enough to have even graduated from the academy, and already he was on a team. Something wasn't right, the Old Man had always been very strict about his minimum graduation age. That was the only reason Sasuke had been in Naruto's class, he probably could have graduated in three years if it had been allowed. Naruto knew with a certainty he couldn't explain that someone had chosen to place Itachi on Team 7 for reasons beyond team balance. He couldn't quite shake the feeling that more was going on with their team than he'd ever noticed before. There were too many secrets. Once they rescued Sasuke, he vowed, he was going to get to the bottom everything. Until then though, he couldn't afford to be distracted. As much as he didn't want to think about it, the kid's safety would have to be secondary to securing Sasuke. He'd just have to settle for protecting the kid as best as he could until they could figure out what game the Hokage and council were playing.

It was a good thing Sakura happened to show up then. Her panicked footsteps brought him out of his increasingly dark thoughts in an instant, though since she wasn't yelling to them, he doubted anything was seriously wrong. He noted with a rather amused smile, that the kid had come to stand by him, his body tense and fingers straying near his weapon pouch. Realizing that he should probably stand up if he didn't want Sakura to punch him for being lazy, Naruto pushed himself up and dusted off his pants. He noticed that his lack of concern had a calming effect on the kid as well. He relaxed a bit and managed to look surprisingly harmless by the time Sakura made it to their end of the field. She stood in place for a moment, making a big scene of trying to catch her breath before grabbing Naruto's shoulders. Naruto suppressed a grin as he felt the kid tense next to him again. Here comes her excuse, Naruto thought a bit uncharitably. "Naruto-kun" she gasped, her eyes actually tearing up, "is Kakashi-sensei here? I-" she paused melodramatically to take a couple of deep breaths and wipe the moisture from her face, "accidently slept in. I didn't miss the test did I?" Naruto more sensed than saw Itachi relax again, satisfied that neither Naruto nor Sakura were in danger.

Apart from the fake tears and forced breathlessness, Sakura was clearly fine. She was well rested and had taken her time getting to the training field. Naruto was willing to bet she'd had a decent breakfast while she was at it. And, though her story might fool the kid, it didn't, and wasn't meant to, fool him. Sometimes he forgot how evil she could be when she was annoyed, and he had a feeling it would be a long time before she forgot the whole nonconsensual time travel thing. At least Sakura wasn't choosing to display her irritation by hitting him. Yet.

"Don't worry Sakura-chan," he said, hoping he was mimicking young him well enough, "you didn't miss anything. Kakashi-sensei's being lazy and isn't here yet." It was strange referring to Sakura with an honorific again, and his words felt stilted and fake, probably because both of them had already lived through this once. Everything they did or said now was just a show, an elaborate act for the kid.

Sakura didn't respond though, all of her attention was focused in front of her. Naruto turned slightly to see what she was looking at. Itachi. The two of them had gotten into some sort of staring contest. Both stood tensely, Itachi's fingers tapping out a complex pattern on his pants leg and Sakura's clenched tightly in a fist. For a moment, Naruto felt disappointed. Why was she picking fights with their teammate, there were so many more important things to do? It took him a moment to realize the irony of that thought. Was this how Sakura had felt with him and Sasuke? Sakura broke first. As if disgusted with the entire situation, she shook her head and looked away, muttering darkly to herself. Itachi ignored her and slipped back to his tree, placing Naruto and several meters of empty space between himself and Sakura. Naruto hoped the two would be able to settle their differences, though from what he could tell the enmity seemed pretty one sided. After all, the kid wasn't the one sending pointed glares across the training field.

Naruto rolled his eyes in exasperation before walking over to her and whispering, "Don't treat the kid like that. It's not his fault he isn't Sasuke."

"It's not which Uchiha he is that concerns me," she murmured back, her calm voice barely audible over the slight breeze. "It's the fact that he grows up to be a mentally unstable psychopath. You do realize he will wind up killing almost everyone he ever cared about, don't you?"

Naruto paused. It was true, the Itachi from their time had been a pretty serious dick, but this kid was a different person. He was little and innocent, and while he might be a bit strange, it was in the most adorable ways. Not to mention he reminded Naruto of a cuter and less brooding Sasuke. But how to convince Sakura of that? He bit his lip, "Come on Sakura, give him a chance." he said pleadingly, "I mean, maybe he'll surprise you. He's nowhere near as scary as Gaara was, and look how awesome Gaara turned out." Sakura looked unconvinced and Naruto floundered for another argument. "He's also our teammate," Naruto tried. "Missions would kinda suck if we had to fight him too." Sakura raised an eyebrow, and wow it was hard rationalizing his decisions on the fly. "Um... I mean, he's also not the same guy who murdered his entire family and tortured Sasuke, I mean, this time that was done to him. Why are we judging him for something he'll probably never even do?"

Sakura looked like she wanted to argue, but sighed instead. "You know, your habit of seeing the best in people is going to get us all killed," she said, but the fight had drained out of her, and Naruto could tell he'd won. "He only gets one chance, the moment he tries to harm any of us we kill him and hide the body. I'm sure we can come up with a suitable excuse for the Hokage." Naruto grinned weakly, not sure how much of that was a joke. Itachi was a good kid, he wouldn't need more than one chance to win her over. He'd won Naruto over in less than half a morning.

They were saved from any more awkward conversations or accusations by the appearance of Kakashi. Naruto wasn't quite sure how long he'd been there, but just as the silence was beginning to get super awkward, Kakashi jumped out of a tree and waved at them.

He went over the rules of the bell test, doing nothing to hide how boring he found the whole exercise or how miserably he expected them to fail. The only real difference this time, as far as Naruto could tell, was the abbreviated time frame. Kakashi was later than he had been in the past, which meant they'd only have to sit through this farce for an hour before he tied them up and lectured them on teamwork. Wanting to get his part done and over with as quickly as possible, Naruto attacked as soon as Kakashi set the timer. Or more precisely, an army of clone Narutos attacked while the real one found somewhere to hide. Naruto was far more interested in what the kid would do, but first he needed to get out of the way and find somewhere with a view.

Jumping onto a nearby tree branch next to Sakura, Naruto watched as Kakashi methodically killed his clones by the dozen. While it was never exactly easy receiving the memories of so many dead shadow clones, by this point he'd had a lot of practice, and not even going back in time could change that. Slowly, the clones disappeared until there was only one left. It stood laughably unconcerned in front of Kakashi. It's hands on placed defiantly on its hips. All 140 centimeters of it full of righteous indignation at the unfairness of Kakashi's test.

Naruto grinned and looked at Sakura out of the corner of his eye. She had her hands covering her mouth to suppress her laughter, even as her shoulders shook in mirth. Meanwhile, clone Naruto was trying to threaten Kakashi into handing over the bells, and Kakashi was actually treating it as if it were real person. Apparently an army of clone Narutos wasn't a dire enough threat to warrant activating the sharingan. As Kakashi prepared his "Ten Thousand Years of Death" for the very last clone, it took all of Naruto's self-control to contain his laughter. Just as Kakashi's fingers impacted with the clone's butt, it disappeared in a puff of smoke, forcing Kakashi to step sideways to recover his balance.

Sakura was shaking so hard, Naruto thought they might need to find a new hiding spot, but eventually she did manage to get her laughter back under control. "That was," she whispered, "without a doubt the best spar I've ever seen between you and Kakashi-sensei." Naruto shrugged as modestly as he could. It had been pretty great, even if he hadn't personally done much at all. He was glad he'd been able to cheer Sakura up a little.

After a minute of companionable silence Sakura sighed. "I suppose it's my turn to do something," she said as she nimbly dropped off their branch. And, while she stumbled at the end, she still managed to stick the landing. Naruto grinned a little, apparently he wasn't the only one having trouble with a younger body.

Sakura's fight wasn't very impressive. She was definitely hindered by her severe lack of chakra and inability to rely on Tsunade-baachan's techniques, but to use academy forms and strike patterns was a little-- beneath her. Kakashi-sensei had no difficulty avoiding every one of Sakura's strikes, never once looking up from his stupid book. It was hard to watch the beautiful, competent ninja he'd known pretending to be so much weaker than she was. Even when she started using ninjutsu and shuriken, Kakashi-sensei didn't bother blocking, merely swaying ever so slightly to the side.

Then, Sakura did something with her wrist and Kakashi-sensei was suspended in the air. A trap, Naruto realized, grinning. So everything she'd been doing had been part of a plan, misdirection to keep Kakashi from paying attention to what she was really doing. Sakura had actually managed to get Kakashi-sensei in a trap of some sort. He wasn't quite sure when she'd had a chance to set it, but it must have been during the fight. Even unable to use her best techniques Sakura was amazing. Before she had a chance to close in and grab the bells though, Kakashi disappeared. A log sat neatly suspended where Kakashi-sensei had once been, and in short order, he tripped Sakura and bound her hands behind her back. Naruto glared and was about to send a clone to rescue Sakura, when he realized she was already well on her way to cutting through the wires around her wrists. Less than a minute later, she had returned to their branch, out of breath and covered in sweat, but besides a couple bruises and welts none the worse for her fight.

"Good job," he whispered as soon as she was back, giving her a thumbs up.

"You do realize Kakashi-sensei fell for both of our attacks, either he's losing his touch or doing it on purpose," Sakura said. Even still, she wasn't able to hold back her smile.

Naruto nodded and shrugged, "There's nothing we can do about it now. We just need to wait for Itachi-chan to try for the bells and we can be done."

Sakura glanced at him raising an eyebrow, "Itachi-chan?" And for the moment, he knew he was forgiven. Sakura was willing to well and truly put aside her feelings towards the kid, at least until after the test.

Naruto shrugged again and smiled, "He's really small," he said, "what else would we call him?"

And with a resigned shake of her head, Sakura looked back toward the clearing and Kakashi-sensei, still reading his book.

Naruto didn't know what the kid was waiting for, but it took nearly ten more minutes before he finally made his move. Kakashi-sensei hadn't so much as taken a step from his spot in the middle of the clearing, standing less than a meter from where Sakura's trap still held a rather hapless log captive.

At first, Naruto almost didn't notice the change, Kakashi-sensei hadn't reacted and there was no burst of taijutsu like when Sasuke had sparred with their teacher. Instead, Itachi stood calmly at the edge of the clearing, staring Kakashi-sensei in the eye.

"Genjutsu," Sakura whispered, her voice awed. It only took a moment before Kakashi-sensei broke out of it, but that was all the kid had needed to close the distance between them. He ran forward, attacking with shuriken that Kakashi-sensei deflected and balls of fire he dodged. The kid moved fast enough that it became hard to accurately track his movements. Just as when he had practiced his forms earlier that morning, his strikes, dodges and blocks melded together. And Kakashi-sensei fought back. For a few minutes they seemed almost evenly matched. Every blow Kakashi-sensei attempted was anticipated and deflected or dodged. The one time Naruto had torn his eyes away from the fight to look at Sakura, she had been just as transfixed as he was. But then the battle began to change. Kakashi-sensei pulled back to reveal his sharingan and from there the fight became far more one sided. The kid was noticeably outclassed, his movements no longer quite fast enough and none of his strikes quite managing to graze Kakashi-sensei. He was clearly tiring as well, unable to maintain such fast-paced combat for a sustained period of time.

Then the kid finally mistimed a dodge. Kakashi-sensei's fireball hit him in the chest, throwing him violently against one of the trees near Naruto and Sakura's perch. Naruto looked down, the kid's shirt had been charred and the kid appeared a bit dazed, but he had managed to land alright seemed, miraculously, okay. Aside from some burnt hair and what would likely become a spectacular bruise where he’d hit the tree, the kid looked fine. Which was… strange. While Naruto knew that fire was kinda an Uchiha thing, they weren’t fireproof. He found himself respecting the kid a bit more. Whatever jutsu he’d used to shield himself had been fast and done without any hand seals.

Even as he watched, the kid was shoving sweat slicked hair out of his face and trying to stand. After only a cursory examination of his limbs and clothes, the kid was gone, disappearing into the bushes to try his luck against Kakashi-sensei.

Except, he didn't engage again. Naruto tried to pick out where the kid had gone, as it obviously wasn't back to Kakashi-sensei, but no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find him.

Naruto sighed and glanced up at the sky. He guessed it was probably eleven to eleven thirty, the test was taking forever. He looked over at Sakura and whispered, jokingly,  "Only another thirty minutes or so and we can go back to sleep." Sakura wasn't amused. She glanced over at him and rolled her eyes in the most disdainfully Sakura gesture he'd seen in ages before going back to scanning their surroundings, trying to locate their little Uchiha teammate.

However, it was Naruto who managed to spot the kid first, carefully climbing a tree within jumping distance of their own. He pointed him out to Sakura and asked as quietly as he could "Do you think he knows where we are?" Before Sakura had a chance to answer, the kid was facing them, crouched on a branch roughly level with their own. He didn't make any move to join them on their tree, but he was watching them carefully.

Sakura turned to look at him, her shoulders tense and her hands itching toward her weapons.  "Yeah,” she answered dryly, “ I think he knows we're here."

The kid approached them slowly, obviously telegraphing his movements and keeping his hands clearly visible. Naruto wondered where he learned to do it, it was exactly how ANBU had tended to approach him on the few times he’d truly lost his temper as a kid. Capable of attack while remaining non-confrontational and presenting the smallest target possible.

Naruto pushed the irrelevant memories down and suppressed a sigh. Now that they’d been discovered they’d have to play along, there was nothing for it. He waved to the kid and smiled. “Hey, you found us,” he said cheerfully, hoping the kid wouldn’t ask them any questions. He couldn’t think of a good reason the two of them would be sitting in a tree while Itachi tried to beat Kakashi-sensei’s test single handedly. It certainly wasn’t something child him would have done. He could feel Sakura subtly grabbing a handful of kunai at his side. Apparently the kid was a lot harder to trust when he was actually present and interacting with them. Even Naruto had to admit the kid could come off as a little creepy, sometimes. His face was even more expressionless than Sasuke’s and he regarded everything around him with such intense interest it was unnerving. But then, Gaara had been kinda like that too. Naruto was pretty sure that once they got to know the kid a bit better everything would work out great.

As the kid made to jump to their branch, Sakura stiffened even more, pushing herself against Naruto slightly for support. Naruto didn’t react at all. To acknowledge that Sakura was relying on him in any way would result in extreme pain, something he would rather avoid if at all possible.

The kid noticed though, and backed away, wincing slightly when a stray branch hit his bruised back. He seemed nervous. Despite his calm expression, his body was tense and he wouldn't make eye contact with either of them. Naruto couldn’t help but feel bad for the kid. He was so much like a really small, less homicidal Sasuke, or Gaara, it hurt.

"Naruto-sama, Haruno-san," the kid said quietly. Sakura looked over at Naruto, raising her eyebrow questioningly at the “sama”. Naruto rolled his eyes and tried to indicate that now wasn't the time. And with a slight shrug that promised questions later, Sakura looked back at the kid as he continued to speak. "I believe Kakashi-sensei's test is unfair. While it makes sense for a jonin to test the relative skill levels of his students, it does not make sense for a jonin to fight with near full strength against genin, even if he does not initiate any encounters." Itachi’s voice was quiet and rushed. "I believe the only way we can overcome this challenge is by working together. I have observed both of your skillsets and believe it could be possible to overcome Kakashi-sensei if we are able to properly utilize his clear underestimation of our intelligence and combined talents."

Sakura snorted, "What about the bells. Who'd get them? There are three of us and two bells, I for one don't want to go back to the academy." Naruto wanted to glare at her. Itachi was doing a far better job on Kakashi's test than any of them had done the first time around and Sakura was trying to undermine or provoke him? Before he had a chance to say anything, Itachi answered her.

"You are correct," he replied, nodding, "It isn't fair for one person to return to the academy simply to advance the rest of the team." He paused to look them in the eyes, "Once we obtain the bells, I will cut them into thirds, so each of us will have two thirds of a bell. While we may have to spend a third of our time in the academy, we should still be able to spend two thirds of our time as genin. But, should our instructor not agree," Itachi paused for a very long moment, "I will take full blame the plan. As I am youngest on the team, it would be least detrimental for me to spend another year at the academy. Would you be willing to work with me?" The kid looked at both of them guardedly, almost daring them to reject him. Naruto glanced over at Sakura before grinning, "I'm in Itachi-chan, what's the plan?"

***

Kakashi was far too disciplined a ninja to feel bored, but it wouldn't be inaccurate to say he was rather disappointed in his students' lackluster performance on the bell test. After a few pointless attacks they had, as a unit, gone off into the trees to wait the test out. Apparently none of his students saw the need to take him, or the test, seriously. He was tempted to fail them on principle, it probably wouldn't be much more difficult to drag academy students around than genin, and it would be a convenient way to get rid of the Uchiha. But no, that would be unwise, if for no other reason than because it would make the future that much more unpredictable. That didn't mean he couldn't have a bit of fun with his students once the test was over though. Kakashi smiled under his mask and turned the page in his book. He couldn't wait to choose their first D-ranked missions.

Suddenly Kakashi noticed his students had moved. They were still in the trees, but not where he had last sensed them. It disturbed him that he hadn't detected them leave. Of the three, only Sakura had the chakra control to thoroughly mask her presence, which either meant they'd masked themselves some other way or his attention was slipping again.

That had happened when he'd been fighting with them as well. Going to the past, especially this altered past, had been a very foolish idea. Memory and reality were far too intertwined, and with everything so very similar, it was hard to separate past from present from future.

Relaxing his mind, he could sense the children clustered around another tree on the opposite side of the practice field. He wasn't a sensor type and couldn't pinpoint exact locations, but he was familiar enough with all three of their signatures. Naruto had summoned a veritable army of shadow clones, though Kakashi could not see them from where he was standing. Perhaps his adorable students hadn't given up after all. The thought pleased him far more than he thought it should.

When the first clone came, it was dispelled before it even opened its mouth. Kakashi was similarly able to take out the second, third and fourth before they could even react. The fifth one proved more troublesome, dodging his blade and sticking its tongue out childishly.

"Missed me Kakashi-sensei!" It yelled as it danced back from another strike. Kakashi narrowed his eyes as more clones arrived, quickly moving to trap him a large ring of Narutos. Soon it was difficult to hear himself think over the cacophony of taunts.

"Tremble before the great Naruto-sama!"

"I'll show you ten thousand years of-"

"-I'm done with-"

"-Eat dirt, Kakashi-sensei!"

"-Bells'll be mine in no time!"

"-Believe it!"

Deciding that enough was enough, Kakashi's hands flashed through seals as he created a wall of flames around himself. He smiled slightly as the Naruto army began to cry out in alarm. Soon, less than a dozen clones remained, but without resorting to more ninjutsu or activating his sharingan they were surprisingly difficult to pin down. They showed remarkable coordination, actually pulling each other out of the way of his attacks and working together to try to find openings in his defense.

Kakashi wasn't sure whether he felt more proud that Naruto was finally, finally, learning how to utilize his clones effectively, or annoyed that they were proving so very tedious to dispel. Eventually, Kakashi allowed himself to be drawn to where his adorable students were hiding. He could sense two different chakra signatures in the tree and a number behind it, likely more clones. While their plan was very simplistic, with time nearly out he felt he obligated to at least humor them. They were actually working together now, and that should be rewarded.

If he hadn't known about their trap before, the clones' behavior as he neared the tree would have given it away. For all that they were an improvement over Naruto's earlier efforts, they sucked at deception. The group became noticeably more excited as they neared the tree and tried, not very subtly, to maneuver Kakashi directly below their chosen branch.

He did notice, with some surprise, that by the time he had been placed where the clones wanted, he couldn't detect either of his other two students. Apparently the little Uchiha genius could suppress his signature as well.

It came as absolutely no surprise when Sakura jumped down from the branch, her tiny fist aimed at his face. He was almost tempted to use the sharingan, but with so little time left, there was no real point. If he couldn't beat three genin without relying on it, he really was slipping. Sakura missed her first strike, but managed to recover and roll out of the way of Kakashi's retaliatory kick. Naruto and his clones provided some cover while she regrouped and attacked again.

What surprised Kakashi was the Uchiha. He'd waited in the tree until Kakashi was distracted by the others, then jumped down and immediately tried to ensnare Kakashi in a genjutsu. It hadn't worked, the child might have been talented, but he apparently wasn't capable of the focus necessary to cast complex jutsu while falling. Kakashi noted absently that the fireball hadn't left him too damaged. There were no obvious signs of burns, even on his clothing. His movement was less sure than before, though that could easily be attributed to bruising and exhaustion.

As the Uchiha pulled back, Sakura and Naruto took his place, throwing punches and kunai with little care about collateral damage. Naruto lost several of his clones to friendly fire. After a few knives got a tad too close for comfort, Kakashi deftly stepped behind the tree, keeping the trunk between him and his surprisingly violent students. He couldn't help it as he suppressed a smile. They really were a good group of kids.

Suddenly Kakashi paused. For a moment he thought he'd detected something, like a genjutsu, though none of his students had noticed where he'd gone yet. Before he could analyze the sensation further, the three of them saw where he was and attacked. They were a bit uncoordinated and it was child's play to redirect their attacks into each other, but Kakashi enjoyed every minute of it. It was easy and mindless, but innocent. Even in training, he was used to killing intent, but it seemed his students were enjoying themselves as much as he was. When the alarm went off, signaling the end of the test, he was almost sad. They'd put in a good effort, but none had so much as grazed the bells.

Kakashi effortlessly disengaged from his students and nodded toward the multitude of Naruto clones. "Time," he said in an overly bored and bland voice, intentionally trying to rile them. Naruto growled and glared in his direction as he dispelled all his remaining clones, cloaking the immediate area in a thick cloud of smoke. "And none of you managed to get a bell. What a shame." Kakashi could hear the faint sound of suppressed coughing as his students blindly stumbled out. All three stood at their best approximation of attention.

"You know, when I saw your files, I thought all three of you showed at least a small bit of promise," he looked each one in the eye, projecting as much disappointment as he could. All of them, he noticed, were having trouble maintaining eye contact, focusing almost anywhere but him. Kakashi continued, "Your attacks were an uncoordinated disaster at best, what little teamwork you displayed was simplistic and none of you used anything beyond basic academy techniques and forms." That last one wasn't really true. The Uchiha had tried a number of relatively sophisticated genjutsu, for his age and experience level, and Naruto's shadow clones weren't exactly academy standard, but he felt it was, overall, a rather fair assessment. Just as he was about to start tearing apart Naruto's abysmal lack of any strategy in the beginning of the test, he noticed a slight disturbance in his team. Sakura was shifting slightly from foot to foot and obviously biting her cheeks. Naruto was grinning as he tried to suppress his laughter, his shoulders were shaking and he was doubled over with his eyes closed. Only the Uchiha remained silently at attention, eyes focused on Kakashi's feet as he waited for Kakashi to finish his assessment.

Realizing that he wouldn't be able to get anywhere if Naruto didn't stop laughing and feeling rather proud of the brats for actually attempting to work together, Kakashi said "Hmm, Naruto-kun." While he wasn't sure what Naruto was laughing about, a prickling in his spine told him he wouldn't like it.

Naruto's eyes went wide when Kakashi addressed him and he sent a brief, panicked look at Sakura before attempting to pull himself together. Naruto's reliance on Sakura was going to be a problem. Unless they could come up with a plausible reason for the two have become friends, the Uchiha was bound to start asking questions, if he wasn't already. There wasn't time for that now though.

Naruto took a few deep breaths and finally managed to stop laughing. Grinning, he scratched the back of his head with one hand while gesturing vaguely in Kakashi's direction with the other. "I was just wondering when you were gonna notice that we actually did get the bells, ya'know?"

Kakashi froze. He knew for a fact he'd had both of them on his belt when time ended. He'd felt them. But, when he looked down, they were clearly gone. Apparently his adorable students were more subtle than he'd thought. Still, there were appearances to maintain, even if two of his current genin had already been through this charade before.

Kakashi looked at all three of them, careful to mask his approval and amusement. "So then," he asked conversationally, "which of you will be going back to the academy?" Kakashi makes sure to maintain eye contact with each of them in turn, holding it just long enough that they are the ones to break it. After they all fail to answer, Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Two of you do have a bell, don't you?"

In response all three of them open their fists and it takes Kakashi far too long to recognize the mangled bits of bell they each possessed. He was almost ashamed that his first reaction was horror. Those bells had belonged to Minato. Kakashi had used them with every one of his teams. And now his students had casually destroyed them. No,  he told himself firmly, they managed to overcome the test in a way he had never imagined. While the sanin might have passed the bell test in only 15 minutes, his team had seen underneath the underneath.

Kakashi stopped himself before he could smile or give up the game too soon. Instead he regarded them cooly, his face a mask of bland indifference. "So even after obtaining the bells you still managed to fail," he said, carefully watching the shocked faces of his students. Before Naruto could protest, Kakashi continued "I believe I told you that you needed to retrieve a bell to pass. And yet, none of you have a bell, all I see is scrap metal." Sakura looked about a second away from losing her temper and Naruto like he might have already been there. Only the Uchiha had remained calm, though Kakashi was hardly surprised by that. The Itachi he had known hadn't been one to outwardly react to much. Though instead of a mask, the child seemed to simply not have reacted. Kakashi made a note of it, if the child was internalizing his emotions without an outlet, that could be very bad. And, if it persisted he might even have to talk with the child's primary caregiver. At least child Sasuke had never bothered hiding what he felt.

Kakashi looked over his students again, waiting for one of them to say something in their own defense. When it was the Uchiha that stepped forward, Kakashi found himself unsurprised. The child tilted his head so he could look Kakashi in the eye, though he seemed to have trouble maintaining eye contact. When he spoke it was quiet and concise. "You are correct, Kakashi-sensei," the Uchiha began, and Kakashi had to suppress a smile at the twin looks of horror on his other students' faces. He found himself growing attached to the Uchiha despite himself. "However, the pass condition of the test was to retrieve the bells, something which all of us accomplished. However, punishment was to be assigned to whomever did not possess a bell when the alarm sounded. While none of us possess a full bell, all of us have," he paused and looked at the scraps in his hand, "an approximation of two thirds of a bell. That should mean, logically, that we are only obligated to spend one third of our time at the academy." Kakashi was torn between laughing and massaging his forehead. He could tell that child Itachi was going to be far more difficult of a subordinate than ANBU Itachi ever had been. Apparently misreading Kakashi's silence as rejection, the child continued, "If, however, you still wish to fail one of us and acquire a third student from somewhere else, I," and he paused again before whispering, "I have volunteered." Kakashi blinked. If only this kid had been his student the first time around. The child already understood selflessness and teamwork far better than his younger, well older here, brother ever would.

Kakashi closed his eye and smiled, and all three of his students relaxed a little. Naruto was already beginning to look cocky, a smug grin spreading across his face. "I suppose," Kakashi said brightly, "If you can tell me when you grabbed the bells, and prove it didn't happen after time, I'll have to let you pass." He was almost certain they'd grabbed the things when Naruto had dispelled his clones, though now that he thought back, he couldn't remember the last time he had checked on the bells. Both of his students looked to the Uchiha, Itachi, though it was fairly clear he wasn't going to say anything. The kid had clammed up after his short speech and was refusing to look up from the ground.

Sakura nodded once to herself and began, "The plan was really Itachi-kun's," her hesitation over his name was so slight Kakashi might have missed it, but it was clear from the way he flinched, the kid hadn't, "Naruto was supposed to attack in a way that made it pretty obvious we were trying to lure you into a trap. We were a little worried you wouldn't be willing to humor us, but we hoped that by waiting until almost the end of time, you'd be more likely to play along. When we got to the tree, I had transformed to look like Itachi-kun one of Naruto's clones was posing as me."As she spoke, her voice got more confident until she could almost say the Itachi's name without hesitating. "I masked my chakra, so you wouldn't be able to tell it was wrong, and we hoped that with all the Naruto clones everywhere, you wouldn't notice the other one, especially since his clones leak chakra everywhere, so it's really hard to tell where one ends and the next begins. Meanwhile, Itachi-kun was hiding behind the tree." Kakashi found himself somewhat impressed with their plan, especially considering how well it had worked. He had known the clones were bait for a trap, but it hadn't occurred to him that his painfully straightforward genin would have made the entire first trap the distraction. That still didn't explain when they had gotten the bells though, or how the Uchiha, how Itachi, had managed to keep hidden. Kakashi knew for a fact he hadn't seen anyone behind the tree. And while he hadn't had his sharingan active and Naruto masked most chakra signatures around him, that didn't excuse his own inattention.

"When we fought you, we made sure to focus on keeping the Sakura clone from being dispelled and to keep you distracted enough that you wouldn't notice any inconsistencies. Then Itachi did some sort of low level genjutsu that affected your focus and retention. He didn't really explain how it worked, just said that we needed to make sure you were so focused on us that you wouldn't notice not noticing him. As soon as you were within range he took the bells, but because sudden movement on his part would break the illusion, he had to stay put until you weren't looking at him anymore. He cut the bells up and gave them to us and then we assembled." Sakura shrugged, "And I guess, you know the rest."  

Kakashi knew for a fact the Uch-Itachi would have had to have placed the genjutsu on him far earlier than Sakura suggested. How else would he have failed to notice the absence of his chakra on the tree, or the lack of burns on his clothing or most damningly, how he had fought like Sakura when earlier that morning Kakashi had sparred with him and their styles were wildly different. The entire plan had relied heavily on luck and his own inattention. Which, he supposed, were as valid a tool as any in the ninja arsenal. Kakashi wasn't sure whether their plan had been genius or insanity, but either way they had worked together. Their teamwork wasn't exactly sound, but it was far better than he could have hoped. Kakashi scratched the back of his neck and retrieved his book from its pocket before turning to leave. Feeling the expectant stares of his students, he turned his head toward them and said, "I guess you pass, then. Though Sakura-chan, you'll have to work a bit on your reporting skills. You got a little," he gestured vaguely with the hand not holding his book, "at times."

While it was disconcerting having Naruto and Sakura as little children again, it might be fun going on harmless missions, at least for a little while.

***

It had been four weeks since he had ki– since he had found the scroll. Four weeks and three days. Though now that he was in the past time couldn't really be measured that way. What did anything from _Before_ matter now? While finding himself in an older body had been disconcerting at first, Sasuke adjusted. He was nothing, after all, if not _resilient_. He had a second chance now, a chance to– no, he couldn't think about that. Now was the time to focus on the present, on things that mattered _here_. His current body situation had necessitated some changes in his plans, but really this was all for the better. No Naruto or Sakura or Kakashi to get in his way. No dealing with a child’s body. No useless ties to hold him back. And no stupid genin missions.  He should never have brought the others along. If he hadn’t needed the kyuubi chakra to pull this off.. but he had. And there was no point dwelling on what was done.

Now was the time to think, to plan and to act. Yes, he was outside the village now, but that wouldn't really matter. If anything it was better this way. No need to hide his movements. The only real complication was _him_. Could he trust anything _he_ said? And if he was telling the truth, would _his_ plan conflict with Sasuke’s own?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Translation Note:** This chapter title means “Rained on ground hardens,” which in this case kinda means something like “Adversity builds character”.
> 
> **Culture Notes:** It’s fairly normal in Japan for people to refer to an older male role-model as brother which causes some confusion for Naruto because as far as he knew, Itachi only has one brother. 
> 
> As for how Itachi refers to both Sasuke and Shisui, Shisui is referred to as “nii-san”, which is slightly more formal than is generally considered polite (because as someone close to Itachi, using any polite language here is considered arrogant and thus rude). This was done in contrast to Sasuke, who is referred to as “ani” which is a less formal term and thus more polite. This was done to show the contrast in Itachi’s own feelings regarding the individuals - Sasuke who he still feels closer to is referred to in a more polite manner, but both words do just mean older brother. 
> 
>  
> 
> Finally the whole “sama” thing. Naruto is doing this as a joke because this honorific is just way too formal. Naruto doesn’t expect Itachi to agree because this really is kind of a ridiculous suggestion. In modern Japan, “sama” is only used by people in stores to show customers deference and addresses in correspondence. In Naruto, the Hokage is also such an important person that he also deserves the honorific, but there are very few other people who would
> 
> **General Notes:** Thanks for reading and sorry for the delay. To make it up to you guys we made this chapter extra long. We’ll probably be moving to a more monthly update schedule until life calms down a bit. We’ll see you next time with some Genin Shenanigans and the beginnings of Operation Rescue Sasuke.


	4. 虎穴 に 入らずんば 虎子 を 得ず (Koketsu ni hairazunba koji o ezu)

Kakashi leaned against the counter, deftly mixing stir fry with his chopsticks while reading about Ken-kun's misadventures wooing the somewhat oblivious and very sexy Midori-chan. It was quiet and a little early for dinner, but after having dealt with his adorable students, and the far too clever Uchiha, he planned on an early night. 

The bell test, Kakashi thought, had not gone as he would have expected. While he'd tried not to expect much of anything, he had been surprised at how well the three of them had worked together. They were far from perfect, Sakura and Uchiha Itachi would have to work out their differences, but it was a solid start. The Uchiha didn't appear to have used his teammates, not like Kakashi had when he took the test. Kakashi tried to tell himself that that was a good sign. That that meant everything would turn out... better. 

Even as just a genin and an orphan, the Uchiha was uncomfortably talented. Kakashi wondered how long it would be before ANBU or Danzo tried to get their hands on him. Would the child accept? Should the child accept? Kakashi had watched last time as ANBU slowly broken his Itachi. Idealist to psychopath in less than two years. Though Itachi had always been one for setting records. 

All of the children were talented, though Naruto and Sakura had the benefit of nearly twice the life experience of the Uchiha, counting their... past lives? And while they had performed very well for genin, it had been both shocking and a little depressing to see how much work the two of them would need to get back to where they'd been. Naruto had only the barest of chakra control and Sakura had very little stamina for her age, only slightly more than the child Uchiha. Kakashi could see many hours of training and independent practice in their future if they actually wanted to change anything. 

Smelling some of the onions begin to char, Kakashi looked down at his stir-fry. A few of the peppers hadn't softened as much as he would have liked, but the chicken looked done and he was hungry. He slipped the book into a pocket, turned off the heat and grabbed a bowl. Then, as if they had the ability to choose the exact moment Kakashi least wanted to see them, his dear students arrived. Sakura knocking politely on the door before barging in, dragging a rather dazed looking Naruto behind her. 

Kakashi looked the two of them over. Both of them seemed somewhat refreshed after their training exercise that morning. Sakura had obviously taken the time to at least change into something a bit cleaner after the test and had bandaged her various cuts and scrapes. Naruto had... not. 

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura began, then suddenly realizing she had interrupted his dinner, "I didn't-- that is, if this is a bad time for you-- I mean, I should have probably asked first, but it's important that we all meet and figure out what to do, and my parents get fairly upset at me when I'm out after dark now." She finished the last bit rather petulantly, and Kakashi felt himself smile a little at that. The trials of being the only non-orphan on the team. She seemed unsure as to whether she found the parental concern more touching or confining. 

Before Sakura could really finish her rambling speech though, Naruto started talking over her, "Hey, Kakashi-sensei, what's our plan? How're we gonna rescue the bastard from his screw up?" Realizing there was no hope of his students leaving him alone, Kakashi gestured vaguely towards his table. At least in the kitchen Naruto wouldn't be tempted to sit somewhere that might require actual effort to clean. 

Kakashi leaned back against his counter and scooped himself a generous portion of stir fry, watching his two students expectantly. 

Sakura, by far the cleverer of the two, something he really should have fostered the first time around, spoke up first. 

"From what I can tell, we have rather a lot of things we might want to do and a very limited ability to do any of them. Obviously, finding out whatever has happened to Sasuke is one of them," she said, rolling her eyes in Naruto's direction, "Then there's the whole saving Konoha from Orochimaru and probably Gaara from the Akatsuki. We also need to find a way to get rid of that Uchiha before he causes any problems, or at least mitigate the information he has access to." 

Naruto looked upset at the way Sakura was referring to the Uchiha kid, but didn't protest. Once Sakura had finished speaking he nodded and said, "Yeah, rescuing Sasuke is obviously our number one goal, he's our teammate and uh-- yeah, we'll definitely need to rescue Sasuke first. Besides that, I wanna not kill Zabuza and Haku this time around, and then there's the whole chunin exams thing. We should probably try an' make sure we get Sasuke back before then, that way Orochimaru can't get him again..." 

Despite Sasuke lying to them and stranding them in some alternate past, it would seem Naruto's obsession with the boy hadn't dissipated. Kakashi refrained from sighing. If he was still sane by the time they actually did manage to find Sasuke, he thought, it would be a miracle. 

Then, deftly finishing his dinner, he set the bowl and his chopsticks on the counter and grinned at his students. 

"Hmm," he said, "I suppose... the first thing you need to do is prioritize your goals. What is it you want to do most?" 

He wasn't surprised when Naruto and Sakura answered at the same time. 

"Drag the Bastard back home." 

"Keep Konoha safe." 

Kakashi smiled pleasantly and nodded. While he didn't particularly enjoy playing mediator, it was nice having enough time that the two could argue. 

Naruto hit the table hard enough it slid forward a little. "We have to rescue Sasuke first," he declared, "who knows where he is! He's our teammate and we need to make sure he's alright!" 

Sakura didn't look impressed. Shoving the table back towards Naruto, she replied, "For all we know, Sasuke is exactly where he wants to be. According to you," she pointed accusingly at Naruto, "he's the one who found that seal and he wasn't exactly honest about what it did. I don't see why we should waste time trying to drag him out of whatever mess he's made for himself. Not before we've made sure Konoha is safe." 

"Not even the Bastard would've wanted this. He needs our help, there's no way in hell he would've wanted to go somewhere everyone thought he was the one who murdered his entire fa--" 

"Sasuke is crazy! I don't know if it escaped your notice, but he is absolutely insane! How many times has he tried to kill you now? I don't think you or any of us can accurately predict what Sasuke will or will not do at this point. Not to men--" 

"It doesn't matter if he planned this or not, he needs our help! Sakura," Naruto pleaded, "Sasuke is our teammate. And now he needs us more than ever. That should be reason enough, Sakura, please help me save him." 

Kakashi could see Sakura's resolve breaking. The question was, what did he think? Should they focus on rescuing Sasuke now? Konoha was in little danger at the moment. Until the chunin exam fiasco, they should have time. 

Sakura slumped backwards. "Fine, we'll try to figure out what happened with Sasuke. I'm kind of curious about how the massacre happened here, anyway." Then she glanced up at Naruto, "We'll still have to do something about Sasuke's replacement though. That monster can't know what we're doing. He's a risk to the whole team." 

Kakashi looked more closely at Sakura; he hadn't realized the depth of her hatred and fear of the Uchiha. Neither, apparently, had Naruto. 

"He's not--," Naruto started, anger burning in his eyes, "He's not a monster, Sakura. He's a kid, how could you? Why do you hate him so much? He's done nothing to you!" Naruto was standing now, fists clenched, killing intent flared and demonic chakra leaking out of his skin. Kakashi was really going to have to prioritize Naruto's chakra control exercises. He hoped no one was paying attention to his apartment, as he wasn't sure how he could explain this away. Sakura looked torn between defiant and concerned. 

She held her hands up and forced her breathing to become calm and regular, projecting the peaceful aura of a trained medic. That was another thing Kakashi wasn't sure how he would explain, though he doubted it would be detectable outside his house. "You need to calm down Naruto," she said, "Losing control won't help anyone. Let's just... let's talk about this in a calm, safe, reasonable manner. Okay?" As she talked, Naruto visibly tried to regain control and slowly, the tension drained from the room. 

"Sorry about that," Naruto mumbled from where he'd collapsed against the far wall. "I-- uh, I shouldn't have lost control like that." Kakashi was just glad he hadn't had to intervene. While he knew the sharingan was supposed to be capable of suppressing the nine-tails, he would much rather not have to. 

After a few minutes of silence Naruto looked back at Sakura, "Still, you shouldn't treat Itachi-chan like that. He's, he's not like the other one. The one from our time." Naruto hugged his knees to his chest, "It's not fair to judge him based on something he doesn't know about and can't control. He's not a monster." 

Sakura nodded and said, "I'm sorry I upset you, Naruto. Maybe monster isn't the right word. No matter what you call him though, he is a very serious threat." Kakashi wanted to roll his eyes. Of course Naruto had latched onto the young, helpless looking child that had replaced Sasuke on the team. And no doubt the child had reciprocated. He couldn't remember Itachi having had many friends in his time. While Sakura had a very valid point, one Naruto might even have agreed with if she had presented it differently, now there was only damage control. 

"Maa, maa," Kakashi said placatingly, "I'm sure we all have a number of opinions on Itachi-kun. For now, I suggest you observe him and try to learn as much as you can about this world. He is a loyal Konoha nin, so I expect both of you to treat him as such." And he would do his best as well, he added silently. "Now that we have that settled--" 

Naruto interrupted Kakashi, eyes narrowed and looking at Sakura, "I'm sorry Kakashi-sensei, but I don't really think the matter is settled. Telling us not to hurt him isn't enough. If we continue to ignore him or treat him as if he's some sort of barely contained monster, that's exactly what he will become. We have to trust him and treat him as the valuable teammate he is." 

Sakura stood up abruptly. "I don't think we're going to get much more done tonight and my parents are expecting me home soon," she said tersely. "I'll see both of you tomorrow. Good night Kakashi-sensei, Naruto-kun." And with that she was gone. 

Kakashi did sigh. He wondered how this was going to affect the team dynamic. While it was unlikely Sakura would treat the- would treat Itachi, any worse than she had during the bell test, training this version of his team was beginning to make the old one look easy. 

*** 

It was hot. And Kakashi-sensei was a terrible, awful human being, Naruto thought spitefully. Because of their sensei, he’d had spent the entirety of yesterday doing chakra control exercises. No one else had had to do them; no, Sakura and Itachi-chan got to practice sparring against each other. The worst part was that Naruto hadn’t even been able to watch because stupid Kakashi-sensei said it would be a distraction. No, the _worst_ part was that today Kakashi-sensei had told them the entirety of the garden needed to be weeded without shadow clones and Naruto was freaking sore. He hadn’t even known that _muscles_ could get sore from chakra exercises. And it was all stupid Kakashi-sensei’s fault. Naruto let out an angry breath and ripped out the next weed with perhaps a little more force than strictly necessary, but seriously, it should definitely have known better. There it was sitting in the ground like it didn’t have a care in the world, it’s tufty green hair poking nonchalantly out of the soil, and ignoring the obvious threat that Naruto posed. Well he’d shown it. Even if he was a freaking kid again, that was no excuse to assume that he was dumb 

“Ah, Naruto-sama, could you please pass the compost basket?” the kid asked, breaking Naruto out of his train of thought. 

Naruto-sama - he still couldn’t quite believe that he’d managed to convince the kid to call him that. He knew that Itachi, wasn’t the same as Sasuke, but even so, any Uchiha calling him “sama” was pretty hilarious. That was maybe the only good part of this whole mission: knowing that both Itachi-kun and Sakura-chan were working with muscles even sorer than his own. 

“Ah, sure thing Itachi-kun!” Naruto replied grinning, forgetting his earlier bad mood. As he passed the basket over, he noticed that the kid had neatly laid out all of the weeds from his patch of garden, stacking them into orderly rows. “Wow you sure are pretty organized about this whole thing, aren’t you?” 

“Ah. I enjoy doing it,” came the kid’s rather formal answer. Naruto laughed, not trying to figure out whether he had meant enjoying the gardening, enjoying organizing things, or simply hadn’t known how to respond to a compliment - any of those reasons were pretty adorable. 

“Hey, Sakura-chan! How is your patch coming along?” Naruto asked, turning towards Sakura. If he hadn’t been so close, he probably wouldn’t have noticed it, but the kid definitely stiffened when she looked up. And on reflection - which he was totally capable of no matter what Sakura implied- he realized that since they had arrived at the garden plot, Itachi-kun had done his absolute best to make sure that Naruto was always between him and Sakura-chan. Which was maybe not the best way for a team to be acting. Though at least neither of them had tried to kill each other, so they were still better than Sasuke at the whole teamwork thing. 

“I’d be more concerned about your own plot, Naruto,” Sakura called over with too much cheer in her voice for Naruto to feel entirely comfortable, “unless you’re volunteering to do mine too?” Yup. She was definitely not happy about their mission. 

“Ne ne, Sakura-chan, why do you have to be so mean? I was just trying to be friendly!” Naruto shouted back. Although from the way Sakura was glaring at him, he must not have done a very good job of hiding his amusement. “I mean Kakashi-sensei sure was pretty hard on you and Itachi-kun in training so I wanted to make sure you were doing alright!” Naruto said, widening his grin to show his sincerity. 

“Naruto,” Sakura began dangerously, “Do you want me to hit you? Because it seems like that might be exactly what you are trying for and given what a helpful person I am, I would hate to leave you disappointed.” 

“Itachi-kun, save me! Sakura-chan is really scary!” Naruto begged. Sakura was obviously kind of pissed at him, but he’d been around her long enough to know that it was more of a ‘stop being so annoying’ sort of mad than a ‘I am going to beat the annoying out of you until I feel satisfied that you’ve learned your lesson’ sort of mad. So involving the kid probably wouldn’t backfire too badly. He hoped. 

“Ah. Naruto-sama. I don’t think it’s a good idea to intentionally provoke Haruno-san like that. Aren’t teammates supposed to support one another?” the kid asked. Which was a total lack of support. 

“Hey, not cool! You were supposed to take my side, kid! When I asked you to save me, that was a hint you should be on my side!” 

“Ah… I apologize Naruto-sama.” Naruto was reasonably sure the kid was just humoring him, but it was pretty adorable so he wasn’t going to complain. Besides, humoring was a sign of getting along. And let’s face it, he thought, they could certainly use all the help they could get in that department. 

*** 

So familiar and unchanging was the central branch of the Konoha Secret Archive, that Sakura was shocked when the chunin on duty stopped her and actually asked if she had the proper clearance to enter. As Tsunade's student and Naruto's teammate, it had been years since anyone had doubted her right to go into any building, excluding ANBU headquarters and some of the deeper parts of T &I. 

"Your name, rank and registration number then?" The chunin prompted after she failed to respond to him the first time, rummaging through his desk for the most current village roster. 

Sakura froze and stared at him before auto pilot took over. "Haruno Sakura, chu-- er I mean, genin, 012601." She desperately hoped that her registration number was the same in this... whatever this was as it had been back home. 

The chunin remained unphased by her slip up and merely looked through his list. He checked twice, finger running down the list of names and numbers. "Nope, don't see any Haruno here, I won't be able to let you in until I get official notification that you're allowed in the archive. Only full ninja have access." 

Sakura narrowed her eyes at his patronizing tone, could he not see her headband? Untying it, Sakura held the stupid thing up. "I am a full ninja," she said as calmly as she could manage, drawing herself up to her full height. 

The chunin merely shrugged saying, "Until you're on the roster there's not much I can do for you. Maybe see if you can get your jonin-sensei to give you permission?" He had already lost interest and gone back to reading some book. He was one of those sorts of guards. Sakura doubted anything she said would make him change his mind. Not seeing much choice, Sakura nodded tersely, turned and left. She didn't know where Kakashi was and rather doubted he'd sign a waver anyway, so doing this the honest way was out. That meant she'd have to try to sneak in. Since Naruto had been spending most of his free time either with that Uchiha or trying to reconstruct Sasuke's blasted seal, she didn't even bother asking him. His skillset wasn't the best for stealth anyway. That meant, she was going to have to attempt Operation Break Into the Konoha Library solo. Sakura grinned, it had been a while since she'd broken into anywhere on her own. 

Since she was a full genin, she was allowed in the library anyway. It was just the pedantic door guard she'd have to fool. Once she was in, she wouldn't have to worry about anything. So as long as she wasn't caught in one of the restricted sections, she'd be fine. Sakura tried to relax her shoulders and convince herself she wasn't too much of rule following goody-goody to break into the Konoha Library. 

After coming up with and rejecting far too many plans, she finally decided to try a simple henge. While it was an academy level jutsu, there hadn't been any negation seals on the main entrance and the chunin on duty hadn't looked likely to question anyone on his list. There was also the fact that she had every right to be inside the library, so she doubted they'd give her more than a warning if she was caught. That knowledge did little to calm her nerves. 

Easily transforming into Kakashi, Sakura tried the library again. She was unsurprised and relieved to find the guard just as inattentive now as he'd been before, reading a book and completely disregarding her presence. After briefly looking up and recognizing her--Kakashi's--face, he'd gone back to reading, not even bothering to give her a second glance. 

Sakura dropped the henge as soon as she was out of his line of sight, somewhat giddy at how flawlessly her plan had worked. While it had been a bit anticlimactic, the best plans were. Then, without any visible hesitation, she headed over to the public records. 

While most of what ninja did tended to be classified, public records typically only had a high level overview, properly redacted by some career chunin in the Hokage's tower. The records tended to be fairly useless at best and outright false at worst, since almost everything on this floor was a careful balance of truth and counterintelligence efforts. Still, the records would probably have some information on how well she and Naruto had done in school along with anything else that had made it to their public "permanent record." 

She hummed quietly to herself as she knelt by the proper file cabinet and found her folder. It was as new and thin as she had suspected. Inside was a photo from her first year at the academy along with the village's assessment of her current skill level. Since the academy didn't have in depth instruction in all areas, it only included scores for Stamina, Intelligence, Ninjutsu and Taijutsu. She was rather embarrassed at how low her scores were overall. In the notes section it looked like Iruka-sensei, or someone, had noticed her chakra control and suggested she be pushed towards either medicine or genjutsu specialties. There were a few loose certificates of achievement and a letter of commendation stamped by the Hokage for keeping her grades up throughout all four years at the academy. Overall, nothing seemed substantially different to her. 

She had to go to the opposite side of the room for the "U" section. As she looked through the meticulously ordered drawers, she stumbled upon Uchiha. There was an entire drawer devoted to them, despite only two remaining in the village. She supposed that was since they'd been a fairly large clan. The Hyuuga probably had a drawer as well. Apparently no one had bothered to infill it with other ninja after the clan's... end. After a moment of indecision, Sakura opened it, after all, it would be foolish not to find out as much as possible about her teammate. And despite her annoyance at Sasuke and reluctance to waste time trying to rescue him, she half-hoped that maybe there was something about him left as well. There wasn't. Upon pulling open the drawer, there were only two files left, not that she had really expected much more. Uchiha Shisui, that cousin the Uchiha had mentioned, and Uchiha Itachi himself. Shisui-san's folder was clearly worn and full to bursting of papers and files. Uchiha Itachi's was not, though it was thicker than hers had been. 

She carefully pulled the thing out and placed it on the floor, not bothering to close the drawer, she would be done soon enough. Inside was a picture of the kid about the same age as he was now. She would be surprised if it had been taken more than a year or two ago. She'd actually be surprised if it had been taken more than a few months ago. He looked far more fragile on paper than he did in person. 

Since the kid had been born a clan brat, and to the main family as well, he'd apparently warranted a file far earlier than most. She wondered if all clan kids got them at birth on the assumption they'd become ninja. According to the file he had entered school at a little under eight years old and managed to graduate the same year. Let no one say Konoha didn't favor the clans. There was paperwork signed by the Hokage himself placing the Uchiha in her class. Her eyes glanced over the stat section. She felt a small flicker of satisfaction that despite all the special treatment he'd apparently received his stats weren't that much higher than hers. In fact, his endurance was lower than hers. 

The notes section on his file took up almost an entire page, but even so, it had little of interest. Apart from finding out his parents had apparently thought he might be a retard when he was younger, she didn't learn much. There were a few notes from a therapist of some sort, but they just said he was cleared for admittance to the academy. It was interesting to see the Hokage was taking an active interest in his education though. She wondered what exactly that would mean. 

Sakura carefully placed the Uchiha's folder back and, after only a brief hesitation, skipped over Uchiha Shisui's file. She had more important things to investigate first. 

Naruto's file was also older than hers but similarly sparse. There was little of real value and the file didn't even reference the kyuubi. There were, however, a number of notes from various instructors and ninja, most interestingly an evaluation of his ability to work with the Uchiha. While Sakura had often suspected their team had been formed for a reason, she supposed this was proof. There was no mention of her made anywhere in his file. While she couldn't think of any reason why she would be mentioned, she and Naruto hadn't exactly been friends in the academy and had hardly even known each other, she still felt a bit disappointed to find concrete evidence that she'd been thrown with the other two as a token female, probably only because of her high test scores. 

Sakura shook her head and pushed down her insecurities. If the Hokage had formed a special team for Naruto, he wouldn't have put just anyone on it, just because his reasons weren't recorded in any of their public files didn't mean that they didn't exist. And with that settled, Sakura stood up and shoved Naruto's folder back in its place, though with perhaps a bit more force than was truly necessary. 

Figuring she'd wasted enough time looking at useless public profiles, she went off in search of something more useful to the team in general. What she really needed was a book on recent history. Originally, she'd wanted to go to the library to try to sort out how messed up this strange past world was. While anything different would be useful, she had been most interested in finding out the details of the Uchiha massacre and maybe see if she could find any leads on where Sasuke might be. She wasn't sorry for what she'd said about the Uchiha at their little team meeting, but she thought it might go a bit towards patching things up with Naruto. 

It took her less than ten minutes to conclude that there were absolutely no helpful books in the library. The most recent history text she could find ended with the Kyuubi attack, something that had happened in pretty much the exact same way in this world as in hers. She had tried looking at police records to see if they offered anything, specifically about the death of the Uchiha and the immediate aftermath, but there was no luck there either. The ANBU policing force didn't keep public records and since no Uchiha officers had survived the massacre, no one had written anything up. 

It wasn't until she'd almost given up, wandering around the endless shelves of council meeting minutes, that she realized the council records might actually be useful. All of the records were redacted and dealt exclusively with non-secure information, but important events, like the death of one of the founding clans, would probably be mentioned. Sakura wasn't sure when the Uchiha had been murdered, but it had to have been within the last eight years. There would have been more discussion about it if it had been within the last year and the Uchiha kid probably wouldn't have been nearly as calm about the entire thing. Logically then, it had probably happened within the last four years. 

Having narrowed down the time frame, Sakura grinned. That meant she only had to wade through about two or three shelves of documents. It didn't take her long to grab the first few books and settle down at a nearby table, reading through each one for any mention of the Uchiha. 

She learned a lot more about inter-village politics than she'd ever wanted to know, but it was slow, tedious reading. Even in summary it felt as if no one actually came out and did or said anything. Nearly everything seemed to deal with budget discussions and trade deals. Any time talks dipped into anything more interesting, it was redacted. Entire meetings and serieses of meetings were redacted. Pages upon pages were covered in black with only the date and the name of the recorder neatly written on the top. It got to the point Sakura wondered why they had even bothered to include mention of the meetings at all. 

The sun was starting to set as she reached the beginning of fall three years ago. As she got used to reading between the lines and piecing together stories from incomplete information, she'd begun to find it rather interesting how involved the Uchiha had been with the council in the past. At first it was mostly police reports and asking for budget increases or trying to keep non-Uchiha out of the force, but as time went by the discussions began to change. By mid summer the Hokage was meeting with Uchiha representatives on a near weekly basis. While most of the meeting notes had been redacted, Sasuke's father, Uchiha Fugaku, had become a very frequent visitor of the Hokage and the council. As the new year approached, Uchiha Shisui had also become a far more frequent guest, though Sakura noted he never seemed to attend the same meetings as the clan head. Sakura found it odd that Uchiha Sasuke, presumably the Uchiha clan heir, wasn't in attendance, and wondered if there had been a scandal of some sort, disinheriting him. But with the Uchiha dead and everything so heavily censored, she doubted she'd ever find out. 

She was so engrossed trying to puzzle out what she could from the Council records that it took her several minutes to realize the youngest of the surviving Uchiha was standing next to her, watching her read. Sakura looked over at him sharply. "Uchiha-kun," she said in as steady and civil of a voice as she could muster, "to what do I owe this pleasure?" How long, she wondered, had he been watching her? Did he suspect anything? Had she done anything wrong? What was the he doing here? Now that she'd noticed him, she couldn't help but feel his eyes on her. She felt very keenly the limitations of her current body and wondered if she was fast enough to get help if he attacked. 

The boy looked at her face briefly before fixing his eyes just past her shoulder and then to the table, "Good evening, Haruno-san. I--" his voice deceptively juvenile and quiet, she thought, "I saw you had been researching for much of the day. While I am only somewhat familiar with the library, it would, um, It would please me if I could be of even a little assistance to you." Sakura managed not to react outwardly when he admitted he had been watching her in the library all day. Had he seen her drop the henge? What did he know? How much of a threat was he, she wondered frantically. Uchiha Itachi shifted slightly in a hastily aborted to fidget, and turned to look at her collection of books. For a moment, Sakura thought he looked very young and nervous. He wasn't even armed, she noticed. She wondered why he was there. Was this a rather poor attempt at making peace with a teammate, or was he trying to spy on her? Sakura tried to unknot her shoulders and checked to make sure her knives were still strapped to her leg. The child caught her movement and stiffened, but didn't move to attack or defend. Merely stood still, waiting to see what she would do. Suddenly, Naruto's words came back to her 'If we continue to treat him like he's some sort of monster, that's exactly what he'll be.' As much as he scared her now, Sakura couldn't even imagine how dangerous he would be if he were actively antagonistic. They would have to put him down, he may still have been a child, but Sakura had seen him fighting Kakashi-sensei. He was fast, nimble and smart. And, though she hated to admit it, deep down Sakura knew Naruto was right, the boy wasn't an active threat. Whatever he might become, for now he was just a lonely child. 

She sighed. It was going to be hard, but she knew she would have to make an effort to relax around him and trust him, at least a little. They couldn't afford the Uchiha as an enemy. And maybe, with some careful handling and luck, they would be able cultivate him as an ally. For all his lethal potential and the security threat he represented, the child seemed almost lonely, something Naruto seemed to have already latched onto and exploited. Still, he couldn't be allowed to know what she was actually working on. Admitting that they didn't know anything about the Uchiha massacre was tantamount to admitting they weren't from this world. 

Sakura forcefully relaxed and looked at the kid. He really was very small, not quite coming to her shoulder while she was sitting. She tried to smile reassuringly. "Thank you for your offer, Uchiha-kun, but I couldn't possibly impose on you in such a way. I'm actually done for the night" she said lightly. 

The Uchiha nodded and turned to leave. Impulsively, Sakura called out, "But if you want, you could help me put the books away?" 

The child looked at her for several long moments before biting his lip and nodding again. He didn't point out that she'd only had a few and could have easily replaced them on the shelf herself. Or that she probably wouldn't have left for several more hours if he hadn't intruded. While it took only a few moments to actually replace the books, Sakura felt each second acutely. She wasn't sure if her back was prickling with suppressed tension or embarrassment. 

While he was still looking at her she blurted out, "Uchiha-kun, since we're on the same team now it seems kind of silly to refer to each other by family name all the time, especially with Naruto-kun and Kakashi-sensei going by given name," Sakura blushed, all her words were coming out too rambling and forward and wrong, not even talking to Sasuke in the academy had been as bad. "I would be pleased if you would refer to me as Sakura." That was probably the most convoluted way she could have phrased it, but she couldn't and didn't really want to take it back. 

The Uchiha tilted his head slightly in a gesture eerily reminiscent of Sasuke's. His too big eyes were trying to peer into her soul. Or maybe he was just trying to parse what she'd said, Sakura thought, trying to force herself to stop projecting her fear of Adult Itach onto the child. "Thank you-- Sakura-san," he said, hesitating slightly before her name, "You may refer to me as Itachi." And with a nod of farewell, the Uchiha, Itachi-kun now, left. Sakura collapsed against the bookshelf. Why was dealing with the Uch-- with Itachi always so stressful? 

Pulling herself together, Sakura headed home. Amused that the chunin guard didn't so much as glance at her, even without the henge. While she still hadn't managed to find anything truly useful, at least it hadn't been a total waste of a day. Kakashi-sensei would probably be very interested to find out their team had been specifically formed by the Hokage himself and Naruto would no doubt be glad she had come to something of an understanding with Itachi-kun. Perhaps tomorrow she would actually be able to find something about the massacre or anything she had actually been looking for. 

*** 

The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and a cool breeze was blowing. In short it was the perfect weather to lounge in a tree and observe his team on their second D-rank mission of the day. Since coming back to the past he had been faced with the unpleasant realization that his team had frankly sucked when they’d been assigned to him. Observing Naruto’s chakra control was a bit like trying to watch a hurricane control the flight of a leaf. And Sakura, despite her perfect chakra control, had almost no physical strength to speak of. At least they were motivated this time around. Although some of them, he thought, gaze drifting over to the youngest member of his team, were perhaps a bit too motivated. 

“Hey, hey! Sakura-chan, no fair!” Naruto shouted, “That was definitely cheating!” 

At the moment, Kakashi’s team was in the middle of their second D-ranked mission of the day. The had been tasked with locating Tora, the daimyou’s wife’s favorite cat. For the past week he had been splitting their time between training, which they sorely needed, and team building… which they also rather needed. Naruto and Sakura already worked together fine, but that only served to highlight the gap between Itachi and his two teammates. And what better way to solve teamwork issues than shared suffering? 

“Ah, Naruto-sama, I believe that Haruno-san’s actions may have actually been within the bounds of Kakashi-sensei’s instructions,” Itachi said quietly. That was actually a victory on two levels, Kakashi, felt. Itachi had been willing to actually voice an unsolicited opinion - which given how rigidly polite the kid was, was actually an accomplishment worth noting. And had spoken in defense of Sakura who had made no secret of hiding her initial dislike of him. Clear evidence that the team bonding was working. 

Watching them work together to scour the forest, Kakashi couldn’t help but think they all looked so young. And innocent. Especially Itachi. As he watched the youngest member of his team, he couldn’t help but remember another, older version of him, from before the massacre. He had always been so serious; the youngest ANBU captain with his pristine armor and too old eyes. Despite being a few years younger than the ANBU captain he had known, this Itachi looked and acted so painfully similar that Kakashi sometimes forgot they were different people. He had to force himself to separate the lost child from the child forced to grow up so fast he snapped. It was just so hard sometimes. So many of their mannerisms were so similar. Both Itachi’s seemed unsure how to handle the emotions of people around them. Both of them were achingly polite and perhaps as a result rather quiet with an incredible ability to learn new techniques. Yet at the same time, this Itachi was still carefree. Well as carefree as an Uchiha could really get; the stress marks by his nose were barely noticeable and his posture was looser than Kakashi thought it had ever been during Itachi’s time in ANBU. 

The first time around, Itachi had folded under pressure and snapped. It was hard to look at the kid without thinking about that. It made Kakashi wonder if _his_ Itachi had once been the same as this unnervingly silent, but mostly content child chasing cats through the forest and trying to keep the peace between his teammates who Kakashi was now somehow responsible for, or if the pressure of being clan heir had crushed any emotion out of him before he would have had the chance to express it. At times Kakashi was convinced that Itachi was the same calamity just waiting for the pressures of the ninja lifestyle to break him. He would watch the boy interacting with Naruto and see the clear hesitation and moment of calculation before he responded. It was a subtle reaction - in fact it was possible Naruto, with his relative unfamiliarity with Itachi, hadn’t even seen it - but it was the same face Itachi had always worn when assessing parameters for a new mission. And yet, at other times Itachi would almost smile, or interpose himself between Naruto and Sakura’s violent outbursts and Kakashi would be hit all over again by the realization that regardless of what the future held, right now he was still a child. And a better one than Kakashi had been at his age, both in terms of teamwork and creative thinking. After all, at his age, Kakashi had been more of a walking collection of memorized rules than a functional being and had struggled to see any inherent value in his teammates or humans in general. Itachi for all his formal mannerisms was obviously trying to integrate. 

Drawn from his thoughts by the reappearance of his team, Kakashi watched Itachi race through the trees after Sakura and Naruto in a way that was obviously more for the thrill of it than any sort of practicality. They may still have a long way to go before they would be back up to the standards Kakashi had come to expect from them, but his team was definitely improving. And while things were still not perfect with Itachi, maybe if they were careful, Kakashi would be able to give him the childhood he had never had the first time around. And while Itachi would never truly be able to replace Sasuke on the team, if his loyalty and sanity were preserved, he had the potential to become one of Konoha’s greatest assets. Watching his new team starting to get along with each other, Kakashi could almost convince himself that there was a possibility this latest adventure might not end in tragedy. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Title Notes:** The title translates directly as If you don’t enter the tiger’s cave, you will not catch its cub, which means pretty much nothing ventured nothing gained. 
> 
> **Culture Notes:** Again the -sama is way to formal of an honorific here. Also when Itachi says “I enjoy it” this is basically the closest you can politely get to accepting a compliment and sort of acknowledges that you’re good at something. Your only other option is to refuse the compliment entirely. So Naruto, who isn’t all that polite of a person is actually wondering whether Itachi actually enjoys arranging things or is only being polite and accepting the compliment. Otherwise the first name thing is kind of a big deal. And Itachi is referred to as being polite because Japanese has polite and casual verb conjugations and while the rest of his team is fine using casual language with each other, Itachi has continued to use the more formal versions. This doesn’t really translate into English well though because we don’t have that grammatical/morphological construct.


End file.
